A Twist In Time
by fatcakes
Summary: [Marauders time travel fic] Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville & Luna are cruelly set up and thrown 20 years into the past. How will they deal with the problems of both the past and the future? And how exactly will they get back? HG,NL,HR,JL
1. Voldemort, That's How

**Chapter 1: Voldemort, That's How**

Harry leant back against the mud-coloured wall and unsuccessfully tried to clear his mind. Legs aching, head throbbing and his breathing shallow at best – none of which he could imagine meant anything but trouble. He was stuck. They were stuck. Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and last but not least, Neville Longbottom. During his first few days at Hogwarts, Harry would never have believed that they would all become such good friends, but it had just happened that way. And he was glad for it. Harry sighed bitterly. What was he supposed to do now? How had something so simple become so complicated? Harry snorted.

"Voldemort," he spat. "It's always Voldemort."

And there it was; a sharp intake of breath followed by silence. He feebly pushed himself off the wall and started ambling around the room, carefully avoiding their expectant stares. He knew they wanted him to talk. He knew they wanted him to make the next move. But he was just as lost as they were.

"Harry?" It was a question. Harry looked down at his shoe, dug in his toe, and pushed around a pile of rubble. He couldn't ignore the situation any longer.

"Okay guys," said Harry, hoping they wouldn't notice just how rattled he was by all this. "I think it's safe to say that this is not what we had planned for the evening."

Ron let out a low chuckle. "That's a bit of an understatement." And in spite of it all, Harry found himself laughing, even if it was only for a few short moments. Ron was good like that; he always knew how to lighten the mood.

Hermione sniffed. "It's hardly the time for joking." Maybe it was because she had said it just a little too softly, or maybe it was because she was examining the ceiling of all things; either way, she wasn't fooling anyone. Still, she had a point.

Harry sighed and kicked a piece of debris across the room. "Hermione's right. I mean, the only reason we're all stuck here right now is because we didn't take the situation seriously. I just can't understand why we didn't think it through. We were so stupid!"

"I think you should watch who you're calling stupid," piped up Ginny angrily. "We had no idea! There was no way we could have guessed-"

"She's right mate," cut-in Neville, shrugging his shoulders at Harry. "This was out of our hands."

"No! You guys just don't get it. All this," he said, gesturing wildly around the room, "it's his _thing_. He's toying with us, trying to get a rise out of us."

Ginny stalked up to him, her eyes narrowed and cheeks blushing furiously. "Yeah? Well I'd say you're doing a pretty good job of it so far." He should have been livid, he knew _that_ much. But in that moment he felt one thing and one thing only: grateful. Ginny was...fierce. She never faltered in her resolve to be strong. She never let them down, something he couldn't quite say about himself.

"This is ridiculous!" Hermione said as she came forward, hands balled into fists. "This argument is going nowhere. We're still stuck in this room and we still have no idea what to do." She was right, of course. "From the moment Lupin flooed us, I knew something was off. Why would he floo _us_? Why not Professor McGonagall?"

"Yeah and what about all that nonsense with the house elves?" said Ron. "House elves don't exactly go for midnight strolls."

"That's true," answered Luna slowly, "but they easily could have been Imperiused."

"Hang on, how do we even know if Lupin was telling the truth?" said Neville, running a hand through his hair in a show of agitation. "I don't even remember seeing any house elves. How about you guys?" There was a short silence. "He was obviously being impersonated."

"That's impossible Neville," Hermione sighed. "Polyjuice Potion doesn't work on werewolves."

"Fine then, he was under the Imperius curse. Death Eaters have no reservations when it comes to the Unforgivables," Neville said bitterly, staring at the floor a little too intently. They all of course knew exactly what he was referring to, but Harry realised that perhaps none of them truly understood what he was feeling. _Maybe even I don't get it._ Unlike Neville, Harry didn't have to see their lifeless bodies every other week.

Thankfully, Luna came to their rescue. "Maybe we should all just sit down, you know, just so that we can save some energy for...whatever he has in store for us." Harry felt a shiver run down his spine. What _did_ Voldemort have in store for them? They all weakly lowered themselves onto the floor and Harry bit back a growl as the debris pierced his bare hands. Beside him, Ginny let out a cry of pain and angrily sprung back onto her feet. The rest quickly followed suit.

"Where are all these little rocks coming from?" muttered Ginny. As if on cue, the floor beneath them gave a tremendous shake, nearly uprooting all of them in the process. Harry fumbled around for his wand, desperately trying to prepare himself for what was coming next. But before he could even form a coherent thought, much less a plan of action, he found himself being pitched across the room, straight onto the wall. He fell to the floor and groaned as someone landed on top of him, effectively knocking the wind out of him. Harry could hear Hermione screaming and he knew he had to get to her, he had to save her. But what was all this white light? He tried lifting his arm and then something strange occurred to him. He couldn't feel his arm.

In fact, he couldn't feel anything.

* * *

Harry was jolted awake by a terrible pounding in the back of his head - he had obviously been mercilessly beaten with a club. Harry's eyes fluttered open and were greeted by a very familiar night sky. A wave of relief washed through him. He was in the Hogwarts Great Hall. He was home. Fittingly enough, it was then that he realized that something was terribly wrong with this image. For one, all of the students were screaming, some were even hiding under their house tables. Teachers were running around shouting and Harry thought he even saw a stunner fly past him. This wasn't right.

Harry jumped up and whipped out his wand, all the while trying to fight off a bout of dizziness. He shook his head and then as if someone had turned up the volume on a radio, the noise level in the room righted itself. The force of the commotion hit Harry head-on and he staggered drunkenly. He vaguely registered that he was shouting, but no sound was coming out of his mouth. His throat was dry and his lips were cracked. Where were his friends? What did this all mean? And for the third time that night, as if on cue, something very out of character caught his eye. Across the room stood an ancient man dressed in a very odd assortment of wizard clothes. His long white beard fell down to his waist and was neatly tucked into his belt. He wore half-mooned spectacles that brought out the very familiar sparkle in those blue eyes. There stood the last man Harry thought he would ever see again. It was Dumbledore. And he had his wand pointed straight at Harry.


	2. Wrong Side

A Twist In Time

**Well hello to the people who are reading this story. Its chapter two and its slightly longer -you can thank ME- and uhhh yeh! So plz read it and do tell me watt u think of it and if there are any mistakes can u plz tell me so i can fix it? Well...urrr...enjoy!**

Chapter 2: Wrong Side

Harry clenched his jaw and tensed. His eyes locked onto Dumbledore and he slowly raised his wand. Harry's mind was racing. He couldn't make sense of the situation and yet, he felt the need to be on guard. He tightened the grip on his wand, completely oblivious to the ongoing drama around him. Dumbledore had died not a year ago and yet here he was, standing in perfect health and perfect calm. Harry carefully considered all the possibilities and then suddenly it struck him with incredible force. _Voldemort_he thought_. It was all __Voldemort__. It was because of __Voldemort__ that they had gotten stuck in the Room Of Requirements and it was because of __Voldemort__ that he was now facing the man who had been haunting his dreams for __months._

Harry began to shake. This was all too much. Not only had the spell completely drained him of all energy but he was now faced with something that he was not sure he could manage. Was this all a trap? Was the Great Hall really filled with a hundred or so Death Eaters impersonating students that he had grown up with? Just when Harry thought he might collapse from the inner turmoil he was afflicted by, the doors to the Great Hall flew open. Harry spun on the spot, wand still up and pointing at the Dumbledore look-alike. Standing there at the entrance of the door was Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Ginny, wands held loosely in their hands. To Harry, it seemed as though time froze. Every single person in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to the five at the door. Students stuck their heads out from under the house tables to get a look at the disruption. Harry noted that only one person kept his eyes locked on Harry, and that was Dumbledore. Making sure one eye was kept on Dumbledore, he turned his head to his friends.

"Well Hermione, I'm stumped," started Harry and he was sure he felt the room hold their breath. "Do you think you could help me out?" He looked directly at Hermione and saw that she was staring in shock at Dumbledore. She slowly closed her eyes and started breathing deeply. Harry waited expectantly; however, it was not Hermione who made the first move. Neville hesitantly took a step towards Harry, and realising that nobody was going to stop him, hastily made his way over to Harry. He reached Harry and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"What is going on?" whispered Neville urgently. Harry could see the panic in his eyes. "This is not right! One moment we're stuck in some dungeon and now we're in the Great Hall with Dumbledore!"

"Neville I'm just as lost as you but I have a feeling it has something to do with Volde-"

"ENOUGH." The whole room spun towards the voice. It was Dumbledore with his wand still poised at Harry. "I have seen enough to make me suspicious of you six. Why is it that you are here and how did you come to be here? Am I to be saved the trouble of thinking you a threat?" Harry looked at Dumbledore and started to shake with anger. Was this some sort of game? Were they here to play with his emotions until Voldemort came to finish him off? Did they really expect him to believe that the man standing in front of him was Dumbledore and not some thieving, ignorant, traitorous Death Eater?

"A threat?" whispered Harry shakily. His anger, which he had been managing to keep in check, boiled right over. "A THREAT? What is this? Some sort of game? Because I'm telling you now I'm not enjoying it! So don't-"

"Harry!"

It was barely a whisper, but it was enough for Harry. He spun around and looked at Hermione. She was standing stock-still, pointing a shaking finger towards the Gryffindor table. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. Harry slowly turned his head, dreading what he might see. Harry found that he was right in thinking this way, because what he did see blew him right out of his comfort zone. There, directly where Hermione's finger was pointed, sat four boys Harry knew very well. The first was Remus Lupin, the second Sirius Black, the third Peter Pettigrew and the last James Potter. They were the Marauders and Harry didn't know what to make of them. All the occupants of the room had now turned their eyes on the four unsuspecting boys. Harry locked eyes with James Potter, the man he never met, the father he never had. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

Just then, Luna moved out of the doorway and glided towards Harry. She stopped beside him and gave him a little smile before turning to Dumbledore. Dumbledore regarded her thoughtfully and Harry thought he saw his wand hand drop a little. Luna took another step forward and cocked her head to the right. She twirled her wand in her fingers as she examined Dumbledore from head to toe. Harry looked her over and for the second time that day was grateful she was there. Although he had no idea why she was behaving the way she was, he was grateful for the distraction. He needed one. Badly.

"Good day Professor Dumbledore," said Luna airily. She paused and looked him over again. "What year is it?" Harry froze. Why on Earth was Luna asking that? The question had come from nowhere and it had knocked Harry off his feet. A few people from the house tables had laughed and Harry noted the Marauders in particular had started snorting loudly. Harry shook his head. These weren't the real Marauders. Just fakes, just Death Eaters impersonating them. He left it at that and tried his best not to let his eyes stray over to the Gryffindor table.

Dumbledore looked at them, all six of them, suspiciously. Harry didn't know if he was dreaming but he thought he saw a hint of understanding pass through his eyes. _But understanding of what?__ That __they've just been caught in their ploy?_ But the more Harry thought about it; it didn't seem that the madness he was experiencing was in any way related to Voldemort. Harry had met with Voldemort enough times to know that this wasn't him. This wasn't his style. Harry quickly stopped thinking about it and tried to dismiss the nagging voice in his head. It only confused him.

"Can I please have the six of you in my office? I am…guessing you know where it is," said Dumbledore, lowering his wand hand. He put his wand away and made his way over to McGonagall, or the McGonagall look-alike or whatever. Harry sighed in frustration but held back when the rest started making their way out of the Hall. Ginny was halfway to door when she realized Harry was not following. She jogged back to him and looked at him imploringly.

"C'mon Harry," she whispered, so as to not let the nearby listeners hear her. "This situation may be very odd but we just have to play along until we know what the hell is going on." She looked deep into his eyes and tried to convince him to follow her. He nodded slowly and let her lead him to Dumbledore's office. They walked out of the Great Hall and met up with the rest who had been waiting for them. They walked slowly, and none of them said anything. Every single one of them seemed to be sifting through the night's events and trying to make sense of them.

After climbing the many staircases leading to Dumbledore's office, they walked up to the gargoyle that led them in. They were all quite shocked to see it already open and waiting for them to enter. They all stepped in and let the staircase lead them up. They entered the office without knocking, seeing as Dumbledore was still down in the Great Hall. Or so they thought.

Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, which was lined with many intricately made instruments, gently stroking his Phoenix Fawkes. They all let out gasps, except for Harry that is, because this was not the first time it had happened to him. _But that was with the real Dumbledore and…this is the fake Dumbledore! __Right?_Again he pushed the confusing thoughts out of his mind and focused on the situation in front of him.

"Please have a seat," said Dumbledore calmly. "I assure you we have much to talk of." They all exchanged nervous glances before taking a seat on the six couches that had appeared from nowhere. "Now do you care to explain?" At once, everyone looked to Harry expectantly. Harry sighed. Of course, they were looking for instruction. _Well, _he thought_. I need to establish whether or not I can really trust this guy, Dumbledore or whoever he is. __I need to know whether he really is Dumbledore. __How can I __do that?_The idea came crashing down onto Harry like an avalanche. A conversation he had once shared with Dumbledore came rushing back to him. He stood up quickly.

"What is it that you most want? A desire of sorts?" blurted out Harry in a rush, hoping this would be sufficient enough. Everyone in the room looked at him oddly, most of all Dumbledore.

"I guess I've always wanted…" he paused and then smiled softly before continuing. "… a pair of thick woolen socks." Harry breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down on the couch. Everybody looked at him oddly.

"It's Dumbledore and although I have no idea how, it's him." He looked up at each and every one of them. "Only the real Dumbledore would know that." Harry put his head in his hands and sighed yet again. He heard them gasp and inwardly smiled at their reaction. His reaction would have been a lot more…just a lot more really.

"I have an idea how," said Luna, standing up. Six pairs of eyes landed on her, five in confusion and one in praise.

"What do you mean?" asked Ron, completely dumbfounded.

"Well," she said in a less airy voice than usual. She walked up to Dumbledore's table and began to fiddle with the instruments on the table just as she started talking. "Harry said he had no idea how Dumbledore is here. I know why and how." Hermione gasped. She sprung out of her chair and looked at Dumbledore.

"Of course," she said softly, more to herself than anyone else. "It all makes sense! But how, just how?"

"Okay, I am very confused now, anyone care to explain?" Harry had asked the question in general but he was looking directly at Hermione.

"Harry! Don't you see?" she asked desperately. "We are in the past! I don't know how but I think we've just tumbled twenty or so years in the past. Dumbledore shouldn't be here, but somehow he is, your parents shouldn't be here and yet they are. Now that I think about it, when I entered the Hall, I felt like something was very wrong; I just couldn't put my finger on it. But now I know. There were too many students! The Hogwarts of our day has much less students! And not to mention the fact that half the students there I didn't even recognise. Also, McGonogall-sorry sir- Professor McGonogall should have recognised us! It was all wrong and we didn't see it! It all fits!" Harry looked at her for a minute before turning to Dumbledore.

"She's right isn't she?" Dumbledore nodded grimly.

"I understood when your friend here," he said pointing at Luna, "Asked me what year it was. I believe it is she who deserves the reward of being the first to discover the truth." Harry looked up at Luna and then at his shaking hands. He had woken up on the wrong side of his bed today. He was sure of it.


	3. Talk

A Twist In Time

**Well Hello evry1 reading this, its chapter three and wat do we say? YIPEEE well thats watt i say nywaii... yes nywaii well this ones longer than the previous 2 and enjoy. Bye.**

Chapter 3: Talk

James Potter walked slowly down the hall with his three best friends. It was quiet and that was quite an oddity for their group. It was well known that their loud, uproarious voices could drown out anyone's voice, even that of a banshee. And thus it was no surprise that their silence had shocked a fellow student into hysterics. However, it was not for nothing that they walked to their dormitories in complete silence. You see, it was not everyday that a boy who looked exactly like you, fell out of the sky, landed in the great hall and asked what year it was. It just didn't happen. And yet it had. James rounded the corner and walked up to the portrait of the fat lady. She was sitting in her frame, peering eagerly around. Once she spotted them, she squealed with delight.

"Is it true? Is it true? Your long-lost twin brother just fell out of the sky and actually shouted at Dumbledore?" James looked at her pitifully. Leave it to the school to start spreading absolutely ridiculous rumours. James quickly dropped the thought, seeing as most of the time, he was behind these rumours. Peter, however, quickly fell into a fit of laughter.

"Yeah," he sniggered. "And you're the fat lady, right?" The three boys looked at him strangely. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's Peter, isn't it?" he said lowly. Peter immediately stopped sniggering. "C'mon lady, stop your squealing. The password's 'Azkaban', right James?" James nodded and clambered into the portrait hole and walked up to his favourite chair. He dropped onto the chair tiredly and waited for the rest to join him. A big discussion was coming. A _very_ big discussion was coming. Sure enough, once they had all seated themselves comfortably, Sirius started jumping up and down in his seat excitedly.

"So what do you think?" he asked. When no-one answered he prodded them on. "You know, about the flying boy?" At this they all burst out laughing. You could always rely on Sirius to get their adrenaline pumping. James waited excitedly. Now the real conversation would start.

"Quite strange isn't it?" started Remus slowly. "Some boy comes falling from the sky, and apart from the fact that he looks like Prongs' twin, he challenges Dumbledore." James found it was time for him to start talking.

"I'm not so worried that he shouted at Dumbledore or the fact that he looks exactly like me. We can put those aside for now." At this Remus and Sirius raised their eyebrows. "I just wanna know how he's gonna explain to Dumbledore exactly how and why he came tumbling from the sky."

"James is right," piped up peter. "It's one those never-thought-I'd-live-to-see-it sorta things, you know?" James nodded and promised to further investigate just when Peter had got so smart.

"Maybe something went wrong when he was apparating or something," said Sirius, his face crinkled in thought. Remus frowned at Sirius.

"You can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts, cheese-brain."

"I think you mean 'pickle-brain'," laughed Sirius. Remus shot him a dirty.

"No, actually, it's pea-brain," countered James. Both Sirius and Remus shot him a dirty.

"Well," ground out Remus. "The point is you can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts. It's in _Hogwarts,__ A history_." Sirius and James rolled their eyes.

"How about a Port-key? I mean that should make sense, right?" asked James confusedly. Remus shook his head.

"I'm sure the same goes for Port-keys Prongs."

"What about the other five?" asked Sirius eagerly. "Where'd you think they came from?"

"Maybe they fell out of the sky as well," said Peter with a shrug of his shoulders. They looked at James and he merely shrugged his shoulders. They then turned to Remus.

"Why are you looking at me?" he asked ,pointing a finger to his chest. "It's like I would know!"

"Damn it Moony," sighed Sirius. "You're the smart one, find a way around it!" Remus looked at his hands and James was sure that he would not come up with the solution, smart or not. They would have to work their way around it.

"Guys, am I right in saying that Dumbledore told the weirdo's to go his office?" asked James in a very sly voice. Sirius immediately caught on. A broad-grin broke out on his face.

"What are you suggesting, Prongsie my smart man," he said slyly, knowing very well what James was proposing they do. Remus looked at the both of them strangely before sighing.

"Very well, where's the cloak? And the map too, I'm thinking," grumbled Remus. Sirius let out an excited squeal. He jumped out of his chair and sprinted to their rooms. James was smiling at his friend's idiotic behavior, Remus was muttering to himself and Peter was looking around confusedly. Peter caught James' eyes.

"Err…Prongs…what exactly are we doing?" James rolled his eyes. Who was he kidding? Peter was absolutely _not_ smart.

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

Harry stood near Dumbledore's desk, softly running his finger over some of the runes engraved on a silver instrument. The runes were that of an unusual kind, they were not only rare but they held many secrets. But in truth, Harry couldn't even see these runes. He was deep in thought. He had been running over the night's events for the last ten minutes, trying to see exactly how they had been sent twenty years back in time. In fact, Harry was so deep in thought he did not realise Dumbledore was trying to get his attention.

"Harry? Harry?" Harry was flung out of his reverie. He looked around to see everyone looking at him. He turned to Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry," said Harry apologetically. "I didn't hear you. I was…well what is it you wanted?"

"Harry," started Dumbledore. "In order for me to be able to send you back, to your time that is, I need to know what brought you here."

"But Professor Dumbledore," cut in Hermione. "Anything we tell you will undoubtedly change the future. And it may not be for the better. In fact, it was actually you who told me that. If Harry told you what happened, surely then we are changing the future." Dumbledore looked at her thoughtfully.

"Miss Granger, you seem to be a very intelligent witch," said Dumbledore making Hermione blush. "But you must understand that in order for you and your friends to be sent back I must know what caused this to happen. I do not necessarily mean for you to tell me everything. Only everything I need to know." Hermione looked at him for a while before nodding. She then looked at Harry and nodded. Harry looked at her before smiling grimly.

"Well Hermione," said Harry, the smile on his face growing. "You know the drill. Start me off." At this, everyone laughed. Hermione calmed herself before starting.

"Well," she started and Harry was sure she was trying to figure out the best way to say what she needed to without giving away too much. "Due to some…unusual occurrences we were forced to hide in the Room Of Requirements, are you familiar with it sir?" Dumbledore looked at Hermione before shaking his head. "You see the room moulds itself into what the user wants it to become. You walk three times in front of it thinking hard on what you want-"

"-And then it opens," finished Dumbledore. Hermione looked at him strangely before slowly nodding her head. "Continue." Hermione gave a quick nod and started pacing the room.

"Yes, well when we entered the room it was different to what we had wished for. The room looked like a small, grimy dungeon and it had no door which was quite odd. I also noticed it had a really high ceiling. In fact, I couldn't even see the top. Am I right guys?" She looked around the room, seeking reassurance.

"Yeah actually," said Ron confusedly, running his hands through his hair. "I remember noticing that and laughing at how odd it seemed that a room so small had a ceiling as tall as…as…as well I dunno. Just really tall, that's all." Ginny nodded her head in agreement. Harry looked closely at Ginny and saw that her brows were furrowed in concentration. She was obviously deep in thought. Harry moved forward.

"Hermione, why don't you let Ginny take it from here?" said Harry, giving Hermione a pointed look. Harry knew that when something was on Ginny's mind, it was much better to let her take it out. Hermione observed Ginny closely before nodding her head in agreement.

"Okay," said Ginny determinedly. "Well, we were discussing exactly how we had gotten trapped in that room, much the same as now, when the room started to shake. Like there was an earthquake or something. We all like tensed and tried to hold on but the shaking got really bad. I remember being tossed around and I remember falling on someone. And then I sorta blacked out." She paused and looked up at everyone sheepishly, as if thinking whether she should trust them with something. Harry nodded encouragingly and she let out a deep breath. "But there is one thing I do remember, I'm not…well…exactly sure if it's a dream or something, but I remember seeing a lot of…erm… white and silver light. Did any of you guys see it?"

"Yeah," they all chorused, all except for Harry, that is. Harry turned to Dumbledore who was watching him intently.

"I think I can explain that," said Harry lowly. Everyone spun to face him. "Well not all of it." He paused. "When the shaking was getting real bad and we were all being tossed around like a bunch of Quaffles, I'm not sure if you guys saw but the ceiling came crashing down."

"But how," said Neville excitedly. "I thought we established there was no ceiling."

"Well, no we didn't really, we merely established it was too high for us to see. But there _was_ a ceiling; I saw these big slabs of rock coming down at me. But that's not important. As the ceiling was coming down there was all this white light coming down with it. It looked like an avalanche or something; you know all this white stuff coming down at you. I have no idea how or why, so don't ask me."

"Fair enough, but what about the silver light?" asked Neville and Harry thought he detected a quiver in the boys voice. He looked closely at Neville and saw that he was shaking, ever so slightly. Harry sighed grumpily. This would have a bad effect on all of them, especially Neville who usually couldn't keep a calm head in a tricky situation. Harry looked at the rest of them and saw that they were patiently waiting for him to continue.

"The silver light was from me," said Harry with a sigh. The strain of the spell was starting to show on him. His eyes were lined with red from the constant strain to stay awake and his hair which was usually messy now resembled a lion's mane. However, his speech didn't falter. Harry knew that it was essential that Dumbledore knew everything in order for them to be able to return to the future."I saw all that stuff tumbling down on us and I figured that we'd all die unless I done something. So I cast a spell to save us."

"What did you cast?" asked Dumbledore thoughtfully.

"The _Amphidius_." Hermione let out a gasp while the rest looked at him blankly.

"But Harry," she squealed half excitedly, half angrily. "That was dangerous. We had only learnt the spell in theory and we all knew the effects it could have on a person. You agreed with me to never attempt it." Harry looked at her hopelessly.

"Hermione I knew the risks, but what did you expect me to do? I'd rather take the risk than die, wouldn't you?" he said exhaustedly. His exhaustion must have shown because she kept quiet. Ginny stood up and walked over to him. She took hold of his hand and guided him over to the couch next to her.

"You look real pale, have a seat." Ginny sat Harry down and placed her arm around his neck. She drew him close to her and gave him a reassuring smile. Harry smiled at her before looking at Dumbledore.

"So Professor, does that help you?" asked Harry weakly. Dumbledore stayed quiet for a while, thoroughly looking them over. He then sighed and began to rub his temples. Harry knew that their situation was not only having a negative effect on them, but on Dumbledore too, maybe even more so. On top of controlling the school, he now had to find a way back for them.

"I do not know exactly how advanced time travel methods are in 1997 but I assure you in 1977 they are quite appalling. Although many in the Department Of Mysteries are embarking on the adventure of time, I fear it will be a long time before they have created such a device to send you six back. We are yet to discover the wonders of time." Dumbledore looked at them all sadly. Harry's breathing quickened and he felt his heart start to pound uncomfortably in his chest.

"What are you saying Professor?" asked Ron shakily. Harry looked around and noticed that everyone else wore equally frightened expressions. Of course, it was only natural seeing as they had left their whole life behind. That was not something easy to leave behind. Harry felt the grip on his shoulders tighten. He looked at Ginny and it was his turn to give her a reassuring smile.

"I am not saying anything. You must remember Mr. Weasley that anything is possible. I was merely saying that it will be a while before we have a way for you to go back."

"A while sir?" asked Harry.

"Yes, a while Harry," said Dumbledore, looking away. Harry felt his heart sink. Dumbledore was purposely avoiding his question. That could only mean bad for them.

"So what do you suggest we do while waiting?" asked Luna as though she did not care whether they returned today or next year. Hermione looked up and managed a smile.

"We research of course. We didn't learn to read for nothing." Ron grumbled and Neville let out a shaky laugh. Harry felt Ginny lean into him.

"Oh great," she whispered. "Out of all the fun things we could be doing in the past, we're gonna be reading!" She and Harry burst into silent giggles.

"Hermione is right," said Luna as Hermione gave Harry and Ginny a pointed glare. Harry and Ginny were sent into a fresh round of giggles. Luna didn't even look at them as she continued. "But I meant, where are we going to stay and sleep?"

"Watch out Hermione, Luna is taking your place. She catching on everything a lot quicker isn't she? I mean I know we were all thrown back, but you more so than anyone." Hermione shot Ron a dirty.

"Well I'll have you know-" However, Hermione was cut off as Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly. They all looked at him and were surprised to see him smiling.

"It is quite out of the question to enroll you seeing as our little…display in the Great Hall would've left quite an impression. It is also important that you have time to conduct necessary research and schoolwork will only get in the way."

"Okay, so what do we do?" asked Harry, feeling a little bit annoyed at Dumbledore. It would be much less tiring if Dumbledore was quicker to the point. "Should we maybe rent a place at Hogsmeade? Although I'm not that sure they have a place for us to stay." Harry, who had been looking at his hands while talking, looked up to see Dumbledore shaking his head.

"You will find that quite unnecessary. I have just the place to fit you six. You'll find them quite like the Head Dorms," he said while admiring the Head badges he and Hermione were wearing. Professor McGonagall had found it perfectly fitting that the two of them were given the opportunity to take on the responsibility. They all nodded, seeing as they had all been in the Dorms before, he and Hermione because they lived there and the rest had been there on late night gatherings and sometimes even to study. When Dumbledore stood up, they all followed as he led the way out of the office.

Harry followed as he led them down many staircases. He was deep in thought and even though he knew it was not good for his health to continuously bully his brain into thinking, he needed to make sense of it all. He gave quite a start when he felt Ginny take his arm. He looked up and saw her frowning at him.

"Stop stressing," she whispered. She then grinned evilly. "Or I'll give you more to stress about." She winked at him and pulled him along. When they came to a stop, Harry was shocked to see that they were on the first floor near the kitchens. They were standing in front of a long stretch of wall. Harry stared confusedly at the wall before turning his curious gaze to Dumbledore. Dumbledore was looking at them smiling.

"I want you to look at this wall," he told them mysteriously. Harry found this very odd but looked at the wall anyway. When nothing happened he looked worriedly at Dumbledore. Dumbledore continued to smile. Harry looked back to the wall and started to examine every inch of the wall. It was quite a shock when he saw the wall start to split in half. He gasped, along with the rest of the group. The wall was still splitting and Harry observed that the crack was now big enough to let several people in. Dumbledore ushered them into the crack which Harry noted had started closing just after they had entered. Harry looked at the wall and saw a large portrait with five very pretty women sitting and having tea. The women turned to them and started to talk in hushed whispers.

"It's been long-"

"-finally-"

"-wonder what the password is-"

"Good day ladies, I'm sure you'll agree it has been a long time." All the ladies nodded in unison. One of them put down her cup of tea before standing up.

"So Albus," she said cheekily. "What is the password? You know we quiver with excitement at the prospect of a new password." She smiled happily and looked at them expectantly. They turned to Dumbledore.

"Well before I leave you to decide on your password I thought I should let you know. You have access to the whole castle and anytime you feel you need a chat, please drop by." He smiled serenely at them before turning to leave. However, Hermione stopped him.

"But sir," she objected, her brow creasing. "What of the students? Won't they find it quite odd if we just popped into the library every once and a while?" Dumbledore looked at her thoughtfully.

"I will have a talk with them and I assure you, they will not get in your way."

"Thank you sir," they said in unison. Dumbledore turned and exited through a newly formed crack in the wall. Once he had left, the crack in the wall had shut again.

"So dearies, what'll it be?" They all looked at each other before Luna stepped forward.

"I think the password 'time' would be appropriate," she said airily before clambering through the newly opened portrait hole. Harry turned to the rest of them and shrugged.

"Leave it to Luna I say," he said sleepily, smirking slightly.

**Oh yeh, i felt really excited to say this but HP 7 is cumin out in 8 days! Aaaaaahhhhh-im so excited-and i jus cant hide it! lol.**


	4. Coincidences

A Twist In Time

**HELLOO! I took a break (well no i didnt i just had school) but i read HP7! Who liked it? Who hated it? tell meee watt u think (cuzz my slow brother hasnt finished reeding it yet and so i cnt dicuss it with him yet!) nywaii nuther chapter, i just realised im sorta dragging it out and so yeh i wnt anymore, im just tryna figure out how itll go... now i wanna give a special thanks to sum ppl who keep reviewing: mwppfan4ever, leela06, Pure Magical, EssenceOfPhlegm, lemonwedges4, shoveitupYOURass (AHAHAHAHAH) and Elfsquire90. THanks.**

Chapter 4: Coincidences

"I'm bored," whined Sirius like a little child. "Let's just go back to the common room. I'm sick of this. We've been out here for hours looking for them nutters. They weren't in Dumbledore's office, they weren't in the hospital wing and I'd bet my bottom they're not in the bloody castle. Dumbledore probably blasted them back to wherever they flew in from. Let's just go."

"Might I remind you Padfoot that we wouldn't be out here cold, bored and in Peter's case, hungry, if you hadn't lost the map," said Remus angrily. "I should also let you know that your whining is terribly annoying-"

"Get out of it, I didn't lose the map…I just can't-err-find it…"

"Yeah sure," Remus muttered through chattering teeth.

"Could you two just shut up?" James whispered shrilly. "It feels like you're grinding my brain on cement! Moony, Padfoot always loses things and denies it, you should know better than trying to pin it down on him! Padfoot, your whining is _really_ annoying, so please just stop it." He gave both of the scowling boy's apologetic smiles before rushing on. "Why don't we just call it quits for tonight guys, we can look for the map tomorrow and then we can see if they are still in the castle. Agreed?" Sirius and Remus nodded but Peter looked at them apprehensively.

"Maybe we could…err…nip down to the kitchens for a bite to eat…I'm really hungry…" squeaked Peter, wringing his hands nervously. They all stared at him in shock.

"_Now_!" gasped Sirius. "You ate enough to satisfy a troll and you're still hungry!"

"C'mon guys, I'm hungry," he whined, now sounding very much like Sirius. They all rolled their eyes.

"Fine Wormtail but we'll be in and out, okay?" said James miserably. Peter nodded.

"Yeah, we have lessons tomorrow and we haven't even got any sleep yet!" Remus growled. They all nodded, turned around and made their way to the kitchens. Once they had reached the first floor, they walked along to the place they had been many times before, for all sorts of reasons. Once they reached the portrait, James reached out and tickled the pear, which turned into a large green door handle. He seized the doorknob and opened the door. They all clambered in and for the second time that night, they were met with a strange sight.

One boy and one girl, both with flaming red hair, were running along the large house tables, valiantly throwing food at each other. A girl with dirty blonde hair sat, cross-legged, reading a magazine labeled _The Quibbler_ in the centre of the table. She payed no heed to the warring red- heads that were running around her, hurling blobs of potato, chicken, salad and cake at each other. Another girl with bushy brown hair was standing near the commotion, screaming and shaking her fist at the two oblivious food-fighters. One other boy was standing far away from the others, trying to wipe what looked like chocolate mousse off his face. James didn't need to look closer to realise that these were the people they had spent all night looking for. _Of course they would be in the kitchens, _thought James_Silly__ of us not to think of that, their__ journey must have made them hungry_James found the commotion quite hilarious and it took him all his will-power to not burst-out laughing on the spot. After all, who would not laugh when they walked in on five people soaked in foods of all kinds, sniggering stupidly while trying to duck as roasts flew hither and thither?

However, their obvious merriment did not last, for as soon as the door opened and the four boys clambered in, they all whipped around and the bushy girl even pulled her wand out. The room which had been filled with screaming, laughing and in the blonde girl's case, humming, had suddenly gone dead quiet. Again, James had to fight the urge to laugh as he looked upon one of the silliest scenes he had ever witnessed. The two red-heads, who had been throwing food at each other, now stood stock-still with drumsticks held loosely in their hands. The bushy haired girl had her head twisted at an amazing 180 degrees, one hand poking out of her side, wand held tightly in it and her other fist still raised in the air. The boy covered in chocolate mousse looked as though he had been petrified, the poor boy. But what James found the most curious was that the blonde-haired girl was still sitting down, cross-legged, reading the paper. The only thing that had changed was that she had stopped humming.

"Who's there?" asked the girl with bushy brown hair. James found this a very odd question until he realised they were under the cloak and so obviously, they couldn't see them. He almost hit himself over the head. There was silence for a while before the girl with flaming red hair let out an excited scream. She jumped down off the table.

"Harry," she called walking towards them. "What're you doing up? And why on earth are you under the invisibility cloak? There's no-one here to see us but the houselves." She was now directly in front of them. She raised her hand, clasped the cloak tightly and pulled it off the four boys. She stood there, cloak in hand, staring at them in complete shock.

"Shit."

James looked up to see who had spoken. He found it was the boy with flaming red hair like the girl's in front of him. James found this such an odd, but correct thing to say that he laughed. He turned to his three best friends and grinned excitedly.

"Brilliant! Wormtail, it looks like we've found them!" He looked back to them all and took a step forward.

"Hi, my name is James Potter, this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." They all looked at him without words to say. The girl with bushy brown hair coughed nervously.

"Oh-err-that's umm…nice," said the girl. James didn't wait for another answer. He strode over to the nearest table, the one with the blonde-haired girl on it, and took a seat. He was a curious boy, and he really wanted to know how they had got here.

"Why don't we have a seat?" he asked with an innocent but curious expression. The boys, with Sirius in the lead, rushed over to him and took a seat beside him. They all looked expectantly at the other five. The red haired girl, James noticed, was still standing with the cloak in her hand staring at the spot where he had been under the cloak. He heard her clear her throat.

"Well," she said shakily and James could tell she was nervous, "Nothing wrong with a talk, now is there?" She smiled weakly before walking over to the table and sitting down. The others slowly followed her. Once they had all seated themselves at the table comfortably, or as comfortable as possible when you had food splashed all over you, he cleared his throat loudly. He opened his mouth to suggest they introduce themselves when Peter cut in.

"Wasn't there another ones of you guys?" he asked nervously, as though scared the strangers would turn him into a bat. "I remember there being six people." The red-headed boy regarded them warily before nodding swiftly.

"That would be my best mate Harry," he said with what was unmistakably a hint of pride. Why? He had no idea. The bushy haired girl nodded.

"He's feeling a bit…well out of it really, and so we just left him to have a rest," she said carefully and if James was not mistaken he heard her mutter "God knows he needs one". He looked at Sirius and Remus and saw that they, unlike him, had not heard what she had said. Remus however, was looking at them with a slightly curious expression. He leaned forward.

"So what's your name's then?" he asked casually, well as casual as Remus could be, what with the aura of intelligence that seemed to radiate off him and his well arranged face that could fool anyone. _After all, it had fooled us for quite a while too, _thought James_, but me and Sirius, we were on top of things, we were, and that's the only reason we broke through. _James shook his head and looked back to the five flyers. He noted, with Remus-like intelligence, that they all shared the same expression: alarm. But of what, he had no idea. The blonde haired girl cleared her throat. She smiled at them in a dazed way.

"Well," she started in an airy voice, as though she was speaking from a dream, "My name is Luna, this here is Ginny, Neville, Hermione and Ron. And we've already told you our other friend is Harry." The rest nodded, a bit meekly, James noticed, but nevertheless, they nodded. Sirius let out a low chuckle.

"You-err-had a bit of a flashy appearance didn't you?" he asked cheekily while winking at Ginny. Ginny's eyebrow shot into her hairline, and did not reappear for quite a while. Ron eyed Sirius angrily.

"Look Sirius," spat Ron, "You might wanna know Ginny's-"

However the rest of his sentence was cut-off by an unnaturally high-pitched laugh from Hermione. She was looking at Ron with her eyebrows furrowed. She seemed to be trying to murder him with her quailing stare. After a while, or rather what she deemed sufficient torture-time, she turned to the four boys and hitched on a smile.

"Sorry but we can't really stay anymore," she said, and James had to admit, she really did sound sorry. "We have to get washed and get some sleep. Our…umm…journey was quite long and tiring. So we'll just leave you and umm…don't worry we won't report you to any teachers. You know, about being out after ours. So bye!" She sprung out of her chair, gave the rest of the group patronizing looks, before making her way to the kitchen door and outside. James watched her retreating back with some shock._ Report us! Blimey__ what a party pooper!_ Sirius seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Report us, eh?" he whispered as the rest followed her out. "Gosh, what a rule-breather!" James looked at Sirius and chose not to comment on his very unusual choice of words. Remus got up and looked around dazedly.

"Well, I'm not hungry anymore. Let's get back," he said sleepily. Sirius laughed.

"It wasn't you who was hungry, it was Wormy over here."

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

Harry's first thought was that they were snakes. He had woken up to hear shrill sounds buzzing in his head. Not only were they very close to his ears, but they were loud and very annoying. He tried to shift position and maybe block out the nonsense whizzing through his brain, but his attempts were in vain. Then the thought struck him. Snakes. There were snakes in the room around him. He sat up in bed and fumbled around for his wand on his bedside. Instead he smashed what felt like a lamp and he couldn't stop the cry of pain that escaped his lips. He could feel pieces of glass all over his hand and it hurt. He opened his eyes and looked around dazedly. He was not in bed and there was no bedside table. He was on a couch and he had smashed a glass of water. His ears tuned in and he heard Ron, his best mate, shouting loudly.

"Blimey mate, I didn't know you were awake. I'm sorry…didn't think you would smash the glass. Shit man, your hand looks bad. Hermione? HERMIONE? Neville, where's Hermione? Great, she's in the library. It's eight in the morning and she's in the library. Harry, mate, I think you should go to the hospital wing. Your hands bleeding badly and right now I can't think of a spell to fix you up." Ron continued to rant and it was all Harry could do to shut him up.

"Okay, mate, OKAY!" Ron shut up. "I'll go, just shut up and I'll go." Ron grinned.

"Cool I'll escort you." He lowered his voice so that Neville and Luna who were sitting across from them couldn't hear. "It gives me a reason to get away from these nutters. Neville's swallowing all this crap about the Snorcackle or whatever. Let's go." Harry jumped up hastily and pulled on a t-shirt. His hand was throbbing painfully and now that he looked at it properly, it indeed was bleeding badly. He could see the pieces of glass sticking out at odd angles. He grabbed a cloth lying on the floor and let his hand rest on it so that he didn't bleed a trail all over the castle. They clambered out of the portrait-hole and ignored the five ladies' morning welcomes. They slid out of the crack and made their way to the hospital wing. Harry was walking along silently, listening to Ron recount what they had done last night while Harry was asleep. There were very few people in the hallways, many of them being in the hall for breakfast. Something of what Ron was saying fluttered into his brain.

"-So yeah and guess who walks in, your dad, Sirius, Professor Lupin and rat-face. And guess what? Sirius was flirting with Ginny. I felt like punching him man-no offence obviously-"

"WHAT?"

"Yeah I know, god I felt like killing him-"

"NO-wait, you met them? The marauders? You met them last night?" Harry was now looking at Ron, his face lit up with a sort of fever. Ron laughed.

"Yeah we did, and guess what? They came in with the invisibility cloak and Ginny thought it was you and so she ran up to them and took off the cloak. Hahaha! Was that a laugh or what?" But Harry was not interested in Ron's continued rambling.

"Why didn't you wake me? I would've liked to meet them!" Ron looked at him nervously.

"Well, I would've, but you seemed really tired and stuff." Ron looked at the expression on Harry's face and ruffled his hair nervously. "We weren't there for long anyway, Hermione made us leave about five minutes after we met anyway. The only thing we got through was our names." Harry who accepted this as an adequate argument was momentarily baffled.

"Surely you didn't give them your real names? I mean we all have relatives and stuff! It would've sold us out and stuff. "

"Naa, Luna was the one who gave our names and she only gave our first names. Pretty smart that girl, isn't she? Seems to think stuff out doesn't she. I just she thought was…well loony." He let out a low chuckle at his joke. Harry continued to walk along the corridor, not paying any attention to his surroundings. He was stuck in the past, and he would use this to his advantage. He was going to meet his parents and make friends with them. He was going to find out everything about them. Everything. He had missed his first chance, but he would not let a second one slip by him. Even if he was not becoming a student, he would make sure he got to know his parents, one way or the other. A loud call pulled him out of his shell.

"Hey Harry! HARRY? The hospital wing's over here. You walked right past it. C'mon, get in." Harry looked up and with a start, realised that he had walked straight past the doors to the hospital wing. He turned on the spot and pushed through the polished doors. He looked around and saw that the hospital wing was empty. Of course, it was the first day back and nobody would be injured. He walked up to Madame Pomfrey's office and knocked once before entering, Ron on his heels. With a jolt, he realized that Professor Lupin was standing with Madame Pomfrey and talking hurriedly.

"Yeah, and it's gonna be this week, and I was wondering-" When he heard Harry enter, he turned on the spot and looked at Harry. He smiled.

"How'd you know I was here James? Go back to the hall, I'll meet you there." Harry looked at him in complete shock. James? Harry almost laughed. Of course he, or in fact the whole school, would mistake him with James. Harry heard Ron laugh behind him. So did Lupin. He looked up at Ron and Harry saw confusion, then understanding flash through his eyes. "Oh sorry I thought you were-"

"No probs," he said with a grin. He turned to Madame Pomfrey. "Err-sorry I smashed my hand on glass and its bleeding and I'd rather it was returned to normal-you know-loss of blood and all that." She looked at him, and then his hand and sighed.

"Yes I see, Remus please, we will continue this later, I must attend to this boy. I believe you are Harry, yes, Professor Dumbledore told me _all_ about you." Harry noted that by the way she was talking, Dumbledore would have told her all about their situation and how he would look exactly like James. "Yes good-bye Remus and come here Harry. Thank god you are not attending the school as a student, at the rate you are going, you would probably visit me every day. No, no, no I wouldn't need the extra hassle." Harry smiled at her continued rambling. She was obviously quite frustrated, but Harry knew that it meant nothing. She was, after all, handling his injury very delicately. Remus passed him on his way out of the hospital wing, and Harry was upset to see that he had not smiled, but shot Harry a suspicious look.

"-Good graciousness, what were you doing? Juggling glasses? Deary me, no this is not pretty. Of course it is easy to mend, but really boy, not smart to play with glass. I'm sure you know-"

Harry looked at Ron and rolled his eyes. She just didn't stop, did she?

**REVIEW, tell me if good, dumb, if i should change, and oh yeah, REVIEW!**


	5. What can i say, more twists!

A Twist In Time

**Helooo, yes it has been a long time, ive been aware of that for a while now. I was meant to get this chapter in a while ago but im sorry to say the assignments are rolling in and that pre-examination buzz and stomach sickness is aswell so it will be hard getting in the next chapter. As much as i hate to say this, school matters. So, this chapter, its longer and sum of u's may think its a bore, word waster but its not, almost every bit is important. I've finally told u y i didnt enroll them as students so thats good. The plot thickens my friends and ive hinted certain things, u mite pikk up on em. Oh yeh next chapter lily (finally!), marauders (overdose) and ofcourse the evil minion. Some humor. Enjoy.**

Chapter 5: What can i say, more twists!

It was common knowledge that Hermione loved books, and that was the truth, but _really_, they were wizards, couldn't they have bewitched the books to be feather light? Yes, she did make her way through every day with at least twenty text books weighing her down, but _really_, they didn't have to be so heavy. It really was a hassle to wade through the library aisles with about fifty books weighing you down. It really was. Hermione made a decision: she would get one more book, bewitch the lot to make them feather light and then make her way back to their rooms. So far, she had done quite a good job at avoiding the last-minute stragglers who were running down to breakfast. But it would not be fitting if she ran into any more people she knew. Any slip-ups and there would be major trouble. _Major._

Hermione slowly moved down the aisle, the books precariously balanced in one hand, the other hand slowly running along the spines of the books neatly stacked on the shelves. After roaming several of the aisles and finding nothing, she was planning on returning to their rooms and coming back to the library when she had a bit more patience. Usually, the library effectively calmed her and she could sit back with a book for the whole day. Today, however, was a totally different case. She couldn't keep her head for more than a few seconds before she felt like dropping everything and running away. It was terribly un-Hermione-ish and she had to admit, it was getting to her. Maybe it was the fact that she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed today? Or maybe it was because she had met four people who were meant to be dead not a day ago? Or maybe it was because she had been thrown twenty years into the past, and she had not had a say in the matter? Or maybe it was all of them?

She carefully turned on the spot, trying to keep the books in place while straining her neck to see over the mound in her hand. It was then that she caught sight of a book. But not any book. It was a black tomb, but again, not any black, but a beautifully glimmering black that put nearby books to shame. In shimmering champagne the words 'Time and Time Again – A Mystery' were printed down the spine. But it was not the glimmering colours or the mysterious words that caught her eye; it was the fact that the words were printed by _hand_. The book was written by hand, manually! That was something Hermione had never witnessed. Wizards had always had books printed, by machines similar to that of muggles, except that they were controlled by magic. Hermione was determined to find out why this book was written by hand. It could have been a diary, could it not? She strode purposefully over to it, her mind reeling with theories, in fact, so many theories that she didn't realise that someone was currently walking up to her. That someone being: Remus Lupin. She hadn't seen any of it coming, the crash, the scream, the thud and the pain. And the scream.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?"

Hermione flinched at the pure rage radiating from that statement. Not only was she being hammered by numerous tombs, she was being screamed at! As the rumbling came to a stop, she slowly got up to examine the damage. She flinched yet again. Half of the contents of both shelves were lying on the floor in a total mess. She looked up into the eyes of anger, fury, terror- whatever you choose to call it- into the eyes of Madam Pince. Her throat ran dry.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry Madam Pince," she stuttered, her fear evident in every syllable. She had never angered the librarian. Never. And now she had. "I-I don't know what happened. I must of-no-yes-I must of walked into the shelves. You see I had a lot on my mind-"

"Actually," called a muffled voice from somewhere under the pile of books, "It was sorta my fault. I walked into you, see." Hermione looked down at the pile in shock as a boy- Remus Lupin- emerged from the pile of books. He dusted off his robes and turned to her with a smile. However when he saw who she was, his smile faded a little. His eyes narrowed just a little and his head rose a little. Just a little. Hermione was contemplating the cause for his actions when Madam Pince shrieked with anger.

"Are you going to stand their FOREVER? This means detention! Ruining half of the schools possessions- totally out of line! This will not be accepted-"

"NO-no!" cried Hermione. She decided to disregard the fact that she could not get detention because she was not a student. She had to stay in Madam Pince's good books; she would be in the library for more than half of her stay. It would be very-very wrong if they were banned from the library. "I assure you I can fix this. I assure you, it was a mistake and it can be fixed." Hermione plunged her hand into her robes and retrieved her wand. She waved it and watched as all the books soared back to their positions, good as new. Madam Pince regarded her warily before retreating angrily, muttering to herself. As soon as she was out of sight, Hermione breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nicely done," said Remus Lupin. Hermione turned to him and smiled tentatively.

"Yes well," she sighed, "I believe that's the only way things should be done." Lupin regarded her warily and she thought it would be best if she disappeared before the questions came. And she was certain they would come. She made to walk away; however, it seemed she was too late.

"I'm sorry," said Lupin and Hermione noted that he truly did look sorry. "I saw you were carrying a lot of books and now you'll have to go and hunt them down. I know the feeling and it kills me."

"Oh well," sighed Hermione, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. She had to re-find all the books! In her eagerness to get away she had forgotten about the books! She tried to hide the disappointed look that was sure to be smeared all over her face. "You know what they say, 'It's not the destination that matters, but the journey'." She laughed a high pitched, unnatural laugh and Lupin raised his eyebrows.

"Are you muggle-born then?" Hermione nodded and cleared her throat noisily. She did not like the way the Marauders sprung questions on her and she would do anything to avoid it.

"Umm…why aren't you in class? Isn't it about time to be there?" Hermione smiled. There. That should cause him some discomfort. The Lupin she knew was _very_ law abiding. Being late to class wasn't very law-abiding! To her disappointment, this apparently had no effect on Lupin. He shrugged.

"Our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher hasn't turned up and so we get his lessons free." Hermione scrunched up her face in confusion.

"What do you mean? Didn't turn up? Is he sick and can't take you today?"

"Actually, he just didn't turn up for the start of term banquet and apparently Dumbledore has no idea where he is."

"How odd!" muttered Hermione, her face scrunched up in thought. The man could be sick, but he would have been in contact with Dumbledore, wouldn't he? It could just be ill luck or maybe…but no! Was it possible, that perhaps, Voldemort was behind this? These were the times when Voldemort was at large and that meant there was every chance Voldemort was behind it. Hermione thought that she should go talk to Harry and maybe then to Dumbledore. It was not right. There was no doubt about it.

"Hello?" Hermione shook her head and looked at Lupin. She had totally forgotten he was there. She had been totally immersed in her thoughts. She gave her head yet another shake, as though she was punishing it, before smiling weakly at Lupin.

"Sorry," she said in bright tones. "Just got lost in my thoughts; happens quite often. Anyway, I'll be going. Enjoy your free period." With that, she strode past him, out of the library and to their rooms.

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

Harry lay down on the couch in their common room, lost in his own thoughts. Thoughts, that is, of particularly nothing. Nothing. Just thoughts. Thoughts that somehow had him consumed in a world of his own. He did not notice Ron, who was extremely bored, levitating objects across the room for his own amusement. Or Ginny, who was slumped against the table, on top of _Quidditch Through the Ages_ which she had found on the book case. Or Neville who was watching Ron, yawning every so often. Or Luna who was reading _The Q__uibbler_ upside down. However, he did notice when Hermione came tumbling into their rooms, with (A miracle, no doubt!), no books in her hand at all. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Nice of you to join us. What've you been doing?" Harry later registered that he maybe shouldn't have asked that question. Because there was Hermione, blabbing about her 'interesting' trip to the library. Harry managed to get through her ten minute rant by nodding and occasionally saying 'I see' or 'No!'. This seemed to satisfy her. Excellent. Because those thoughts were consuming him again. However, not for long.

"And you know when I was talking to Professor Lupin…Remus or whatever, he said that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher hadn't turned up and that he hadn't contacted Dumbledore about sickness or anything." Harry yawned and looked at Ron who seemed to be asleep. He wasn't.

"Hermione, why do we need to know this?" Ron growled. "I know it's hard for you to grasp, but we are not students, not being taught by teachers! So. Get. Over. Them." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You make it sound like an addiction! Honestly!" Ron snorted and the rest smirked. Hermione turned to Harry exasperatedly. "Don't you see Harry? This could be Voldemort's work! I've read about these things happening before! For god's sake! We've witnessed it. Remember fourth year! Mad-eye Moody!" That woke Harry up.

"You trying to say that this teacher might stumble in, say there was weather problems, and really be under Voldemort's influence!" Hermione nodded. Harry sat back and thought about it. Well, god, if anyone knew Voldemort better than he did, it would be Dumbledore and gosh did it sound like Voldemort.

"Well that sounds right," muttered Ginny. "Very much his style, isn't it? Deception. Probably the first word he learnt."

"Couldn't of put it better myself," grumbled Ron. Harry sat up, making sure not to put pressure on his arm. It still hurt a little. Madame Pomfrey was _very_ uncooperative.

"So what are you saying Hermione? Say that is the case, what on Earth would we do about it? Wouldn't stepping in shatter the whole 'no interfering' policy?" Hermione scrunched up her face; she obviously had not thought that far. Neville stood up and began to pace. Slowly.

"Well if you think about it," started Neville, hesitantly. "We've already sort of broken that policy. Hermione, you're the one who told me, our mere appearance means interfering. So basically we are already interfering. Hermione I'm sure you met some people in the library and not to mention the fact that the whole great Hall spotted us yesterday." The rest nodded. Ron looked around at them before standing up.

"Also," started Ron haltingly. "I dunno if this is right, but other than what Neville just said, say this Professor does show up and he is working for You-Know-Who, he'll be able to spill the stuff on us. And I dunno bout you but I don't want Him knowing about us here. Especially you Harry! He would do anything to get his hands on you. The one who is destined to blow him out of our world for fourteen years."

"True, but he doesn't know about me yet. I haven't blown him anywhere yet. I mean we're not stupid, we won't spill anything. Not unless we want to die."

"That's right. Harry's right. We have our lips sealed," added Luna.

"Oh, but don't you see, this is Voldemort! We shouldn't be too comfortable yet. He has his ways of finding out. We can't underestimate him!" cried Hermione.

"Are you saying that he will eventually find out about us? That someone would…betray us! Hermione I trust-"

"Harry," sighed Ginny. "I think she's saying the risk is heavy and that we should do everything to stop him. Everything! And here's our chance. We gotta keep him at bay. You're forgetting the reason we are here is because of Voldemort and he doesn't do these things for fun. He must have been spinning some master mind plot when he sent us back here. We need to be wary." Harry looked at them and sighed.

"Yeah, yeah I get you. I just got worked up and stuff. Its just annoying, this is." He got up and stretched a little. "Off to Dumbledore then." Hermione looked up in surprise.

"What? Now!"

"What're we waiting for? Hermione we can _not_ underestimate Him," he said in mock forcefulness. She smiled and Ron sniggered. They made their way out of the portrait hole ('Shut up you annoying gossipers' – 'Ron!') and then through the hallways to Dumbledore's office. Harry used his knowledge of most of the schools hidden passageways to navigate their way around the school practically undetected. When they finally reached the gargoyle, they all paused. The same thing was on all of their minds. What was the password? Hermione turned to Harry who in turn shrugged.

"Cockroach cluster?"

"Licorice stick?"

"Sherbet Lemon?"

"Acid Pops?"

After about five minutes of this, tempers were running high and the gargoyle was being treated very badly.

"Look you big-bummed-buffoon, just open will you?" growled Ron, angrily kicking the gargoyle. Harry was in no better state. He was pacing angrily, occasionally shouting out one sweet or another. Hermione, the ever calm, was, to put it nicely, not calm.

"Just open! This is important! Please! PROFESSOR? PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? ARGGH! Fine, fine, fine, fine! FINE!"

"I really," sighed Neville, "Really feel like killing the damned gargoyle. And maybe a Lemon Drop? Who knows-?"

However, he could not continue for at that moment the gargoyle sprung open. They all froze in shock. Ron regained his bad temper the quickest of them.

"LEMON DROP! LEMON DROP! That's what it took! I will-"

"Shut up Ron, and get the hell in," growled Ginny, unceremoniously shoving Ron onto the gargoyle. They ascended the stairs and Hermione, who was closest to the door, knocked and waited for the light 'Enter'. When it came they all stumbled in, looking angry and resentful. Harry was muttering angrily when he saw Dumbledore look up and smile.

"Well what a surprise!" To put it flatly, Dumbledore did _not_ look surprised. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that Dumbledore had known that they had been waging war on his gargoyle. Looking around, he sensed that everyone was coming to the same conclusion. He thought it best that he step in before tempers ran high, although a small part of him wanted Dumbledore to be put on the spot.

"Err…sir?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Well you see, some news reached us and we have…err…certain theories that we think we need to discuss with you, urgently." Dumbledore regarded them for a minute or so before pulling out his wand and waving it. Six comfortable-looking chintz chairs materialised before them.

"Park your bum." The six exchanged bewildered glances while Dumbledore chuckled heartily at his joke. They sat down and looked up at Dumbledore who was now looking serious again. "So tell me, what is it that requires discussion?" Hermione sat up as though she was about to answer a question in class and launched into the queries on the teacher, what they suspected etc. Harry blanked out halfway through her speech and chose to gaze around the room.

After what seemed an age, she stopped talking. Harry looked up at Dumbledore and tried to discern what was running through the man's head. He failed. The old man's face was completely blank, save the contemplative expression it wore. Dumbledore was sitting with his head in his hands, kneading his temples. Harry frowned. The man obviously had a great many burdens, and here they were adding more on. Finally he looked up at them, looking slightly fazed.

"Miss Granger, correct me if I am wrong, but by the way you have talked and what you have told me, it seems that you have quite extensive knowledge of Voldemort…the way he thinks, the way he works and so on." This statement was met by complete silence. Harry felt a stab of fear. Did Dumbledore still suspect them? Were they still under suspicion? Dumbledore seemed to understand their silence.

"You misunderstand me," he said lightly. "What I mean is that… am I right in saying that this is not the first time you have had to deal with the likes of Voldemort and his Death-Eaters?" The room breathed a sigh of relief. Hermione looked considerably brighter.

"Oh…for a second I thought…oh…well…yes you're right. This is not the first time we have had to deal with concealed plots."

"Yes well I am willing to trust you in what you say," said Dumbledore with a contemplative expression. "So far, I have not detected anything to make me doubt you and thus I shall take your words into consideration, for if true, they pose a great danger to the inhabitants of the school and yourself. We shall wait to see when the Professor will arrive and certain measures will be taken to see that if such a trap is set, we do not feel the venom of its fangs." Harry exchanged bewildered looks with Ron. Ron mouthed 'venom of its fangs' and Harry turned away grinning. It was quite normal for Dumbledore to speak in riddles, but this showed that twenty years previously, Dumbledore still required practice. And lots of it. They all nodded at Dumbledore and Harry rose, feeling that their time together was over. Hermione obviously didn't think so.

"Sir, what will you do in the mean time, that is, while the professor is absent. I mean…I ran into Remus Lupin this morning and he said they were getting free periods. Surely, they will not continue that way!"

"Miss Granger, you are very right," said Dumbledore and Hermione looked very pleased."And that was a matter on which I was thinking before you came in. It is still unclear to me what I should do. Do you have any ideas?" The six, including Hermione, looked taken-aback. Why would Dumbledore ask for their advice?

"Well-w-well I-I'm not quite sure but-"

"Why don't we do it?" Everyone turned to Neville, who had been lurking in the shadows. He now stood in front of them, a bright smile on his face.

"What do you mean Neville?" asked Harry, completely oblivious.

"What I mean is that why don't _we_ teach until the Professor gets back? He'll be back soon and so it won't take much of our time! And if we become teachers, our presence here won't be as fishy. Being in the library won't seem suspicious, wrong or silly, because we're teachers, looking for some information, right? It would be the perfect disguise! And it's not like we don't have experience! Harry you taught the DA! You know how to take leadership; you know all the defense stuff!" Harry looked at Neville exasperatedly. Teach! Oh lord! He turned to Dumbledore to tell him that Neville had had too much sugar that morning, to see that Dumbledore was… beaming!

"Excellent, that's settled then. You can start tomorrow. I think you'll find it easier if you split tasks in order to make the job easier. Well off you go then! Lots to do! I would like you to come to breakfast in the Great Hall tomorrow morning so that I may announce you as the defense teachers. Good bye!" Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny looked at Dumbledore in complete shock while Luna and Neville simply beamed.

"But Professor-"

"No buts Harry!" With that, Dumbledore pulled out his wand, gave it a flick and watched as they all fell to the floor, with the chintz-arm chairs having disappeared. He smiled as they were swatted out of the room by a broom that had appeared from practically nowhere.

**Done, now im putting up a vote- who wnats some romance in the coming chpaters. i must tell u im not the best at it but i can put in a little more cliche if u want- totally fine with me so heres the question-**

**Do you want me 2 start developing the relationships?**

** Yes-**

**No-**

**We'll see. **


	6. Teaching

A Twist In Time

**Cool, so its the next chapter nd i enjoyed writing this 1. I wnt brag on but go to my page and i've written some stuff so u noe wat to expect (itll make more sense when u go there). Okay this took long but dnt be sad, this chapter is very much long. enjoy it. i did. review.**

Chapter 6: Teaching

"Now to most of you younglings this may seem very odd but my little feisty friends, it is the truth! This force is slowly taking over what we have come to love, what we cherish and it is with a heavy heart that I tell you this! This is why I have been assigned to teach you how to defend yourselves against what you will inevitably face."

Harry looked at Luna in amazement. Surely this was not Luna, who so clearly expressed what Voldemort was and what he was doing? Harry would have laughed at Luna had her speech not been so inspiring. She stood behind her table, face towards the sky, wand in the air. Throughout her speech she had been dramatically waving it all over the classroom. Harry was flung out of his reverie by one of the little eleven year olds they were teaching. She had raised her trembling hand, big black eyes teary.

"Miss G-Glaxosmithkline, surely they aren't-"

"Yes, my dear," said Luna, nodding her head solemnly, "It is the ever growing force of…Nargles!" This statement was met by silence. Harry quickly looked at Luna and noting her serious expression, he couldn't help it, he laughed. He just laughed, loudly and uproariously. Everybody whipped around to look at him but he didn't care, because right now, he was laughing. Laughing at the most insane person he had ever met. This was the reason Hermione had assigned him to attend Luna's classes. Things were sure to get out of hand. Hermione had known from the moment Luna had chosen her comical last name that things wouldn't go as planned. And so she had created the 'Watch and Learn' rule, where you would attend someone else's class and observe their teaching methods to, as she claimed, 'learn'.

Harry looked up at Luna through teary eyes and seeing her frowning face, started to laugh harder. She slowly approached him and taking him, and the whole class by surprise, she slapped him right across the face. Well, that shut him up.

"W-what was that for!" gasped Harry, tenderly rubbing cheek. He had never known Luna was so powerful. He stood up and gave Luna the biggest glare he could muster. She looked right back at him, unfazed by his reaction.

"Wrackspurt got you," she said simply. She then turned around. "Professor Scarr here has quite a tendency to attracting these little creatures. But that's for next week, this week we are studying Nargles. First I'd like you all to take out your…"

Harry didn't listen any longer. He would go straight to Hermione and tell her everything. This was too much; he would not sit and listen to Luna dictating the dangers of Nargles. Reason being, they did not exist. Much like everything else Luna talked about. Still rubbing his cheek, he purposefully strode out of the room, ignoring the giggling eleven year olds. He walked down the empty corridors and he seemed to relax a bit. Hogwarts always had that effect on him. It was the perfect stress ball, for Harry anyway.

That was why he was completely dismayed when the bell rang signaling the end of classes. Students flocked out of every corner in the hallways, noisily making their way down to lunch. The hallways became overly crowded and Harry felt the heat rise to his cheeks. Once he had been spotted, all the students started pointing and whispering, not caring whether he saw them or not. Harry was quite used to this, but then, that was in a completely different time with completely different people. He shrugged his shoulders and continued walking down the hallway; he was determined to ignore everyone until the need for him to talk would arise. The need arose pretty quickly.

"Excuse me sir?" squeaked a little girl behind him. Harry blanched. Sir! He would have to get used to that. He slowly turned around and faced the little girl. She was a little thing, with auburn coloured pig tails, hazel eyes and to top it off, a cute button nose. Harry was quite alarmed in thinking that this little girl, back in their time, was old enough to be his Mum. He shivered before smiling down at her.

"Is something the matter?" he asked politely, not wanting to scare the girl. To Harry's puzzlement, she began to visibly shake. He eyes grew wide with what was unmistakably fear.

"Umm…err…you see…" she was positively quaking now and Harry didn't even know why. Harry stared unblinkingly at her, at a loss of what to do. He crouched down so that he was at her eye level.

"Yes…" he gently prodded and to his total amazement she turned on her heel and bolted in the opposite direction. Harry jumped up and watched her progress through the halls and saw that she was running towards a group of boys near the end of the hallway. Harry's face crinkled in puzzlement as she nearly slammed into the boys and started talking to them, near hysterics. Deciding to find out what the problem was, he set off down the hallway towards the boys. Upon closer inspection, the boys turned out to be the very well known, Marauders. Harry rolled his eyes as a nagging suspicion began to unfurl in his mind. As he reached them, they all turned around with slightly guilty expressions on their faces. Harry frowned down at the little girl.

"Is there a problem?" Without further ado, the girl burst into tears and Harry noted that Sirius flinched with each loud sob.

"I'm so sorry Professor! I-I-I-I d-didn't want to b-but they m-made me! They a-asked me t-to ask you if y-you could take me to the ch-charms classroom! They t-they told me t-t-to ask you for y-your n-name a-and if you are r-really teaching! P-please don't give me d-d-detention!" Harry looked down at they hysterical girl in complete shock.

"Detention!" he said in complete shock. "I wouldn't give detention over such a stupid- err- sorry, I mean no you will not get detention. I rather think that you should go to the hospital wing and maybe take a calming draught and then you could head straight to lunch." Harry cursed himself for his idiocy and lack of experience before giving her a smile. She smiled weakly at him before turning around and heading to the hospital wing.

Harry turned to the four boys and his stomach gave a squirm of protest. There he was, standing and staring at the Marauders. The Marauders, all of them young, healthy and happy. He looked at his Dad, hazel eyes staring back at him and felt his knees go weak. He gave his head a little shake and molded his face into something that resembled calm.

"So, would you like to tell me what that was all about?" They all looked down, shuffling their feet guiltily. Harry allowed a smirk to grace his features, but quickly dropped it, thinking it was most inappropriate. Harry waited patiently until Lupin hesitantly looked up at him.

"We're sorry, we just wanted to find out who you were and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to…um…send the girl to find out. Bad idea, I know that much now. Sorry, Professor…um...well we don't know that yet, do we?" Harry grinned at them, and Sirius let out his bark-like laugh. James rolled his yes, but Harry saw that he was grinning. And Peter…peter was…being peter. Harry watched the little pudgy boy snigger and his smile slid off his face. He turned his head and caught Lupin looking at him. His eyes were narrowed in suspicion and Harry felt his insides perform a few back flips.

"Something wrong…Professor?" asked Remus, and Harry noted he put particular emphasis on the 'professor'. Harry was spared answering this question when he heard a shriek from down the hallways.

"POTTER!" Harry whirled around and without realising what he had done he cried 'What!'. He was quite surprised when he heard someone else speak along with him. He turned to see the Marauders looking at him suspiciously. Harry quickly realized what he had done and his eyes widened in surprise.

"I mean, w-what did you want with Mr. Potter?" he said, still looking at his Dad. He turned around, mainly to escape the suspicious glares he was getting and was about to set off but was stopped dead in his tracks. Running down the corridor was a red-haired beauty with beautiful green eyes that stood out a mile. Coming his way, was his mother!

"Potter, you big-headed imbecile! You told me you would meet me for lunch to discuss the Halloween feast! I can NOT believe you…you just standing there with your friends and…and… Professor! Oh…I see."

"Yes I am very sorry, Miss Evans. Da-Mr Potter was being held back by me. I'll have to apologise, but no matter now, Mr Potter is free to go plan as many Halloween feasts as he likes. And you boys may go as well."

"I'm very sorry Professor Scarr!"

"Scarr?" shouted the boys in unison. James turned on Lily.

"How'd you know?"

"Well," she said, her voice laced with contempt. "I don't know if you remember Potter but they were introduced this morning at breakfast. Don't you remember?"

"Oh, yeah…we came late actually. Must of missed it-well anyway, we gotta get going. You know, Halloween and all. Goodbye Professor…Scarr." Harry watched as Lily and James walked down the hallway with a smile. Again he wondered, how did they get married? He turned to the other boys, effectively ignoring Pettigrew. He kept his eyes away from the small boy because he was sure he would rise if he pondered the boy's existence too long.

"You better get on your way, lunch and all." He nodded at Sirius and Remus, leaving out Peter and turned to walk away, but not before Sirius caught up with him.

"Thanks, for getting Pr-James out of that. You don't know how Lily can go off-"

"Oh no matter," he said, turning to Sirius, who was looking at him with newfound respect. "I know how fiery red-heads can be. I've lived alongside one quite a while." He grinned cheerily at them and walked off, feeling he'd done pretty good on his first meeting with his dead dad and godfather, Remus and the traitor.

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

"Hermione, I really don't want to do this! Can't you just teach the seventh years?"

"Harry! I can most certainly not! What is your problem? You're just going to be teaching a bunch of students!" Harry looked at her imploringly but she just looked away, totally unperturbed. He sighed and turned away, choosing to play with his food rather than eat it.

"Harry," sighed Ginny, who was sitting on his other side. "It's not that big of a deal. I taught the third years and they weren't that bad at all." When Harry did not look up, she slammed her fork down. "You've bloody fought Voldemort and you're scared of a couple of kids! Tell me, where are your brains!" Harry looked up at her and then down at the students who were eating breakfast sleepily. What was he thinking? They were just a bunch of kids! Just!

"You're right," he sighed resignedly. "But I'm not much hungry. I'll head down to class now and prepare a few things."

"Good idea, I'll come," said Ginny, putting down her fork. She turned to Hermione. "You'll meet us when the bell rings?" Hermione nodded and Ginny turned away and followed Harry out of the Hall, who was trying his best to ignore the stares he got.

After walking through the many winding hallways and staircases, he reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and opened the door. He walked through the door and dumped himself on one of the chairs. He felt like banging his head on the table. He hated being under so much stress. Sure he had taught the DA, but this was a classroom of people, not just a couple of classmates. This was different. This was hard. Apparently, Ginny had been silently watching him, because a few seconds later, she gave an uproarious snort.

"Oh get over it! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! You're not the only one who has to teach, remember its me, Luna, Hermione, Ron , Neville and..Oh yeah, you. So wake up." Harry sighed and pulled himself up.

"You're right. Thanks for splashing that in my face," he grunted, giving her a wry smile. She smiled cheekily at him before magically summoning a chair to her. She pulled it close to Harry and sat down next to him. She looked at him deep in the eyes and Harry felt himself shy away. He looked away but she pulled his face around.

"It doesn't matter. I know it's hard seeing them, but you'll get over it and I'm sure you'll start to enjoy it." He looked at her and sighed, again.

"Well why am I surprised? You seem to understand me better than anyone these days." He said and then he grinned cheekily at her. "That's why you're my girlfriend." She looked at him warily before smiling slightly.

"No, this is why I'm your girlfriend," she said with a devilish glint in her eyes. Harry was completely taken aback when she pulled him towards her and locked him in a passionate kiss. Their lips met with a crash and he felt his stomach squirm. He deepened the kiss, now, more than ever, being conscious of their closeness. What could Harry do? He was enjoying it. She was kissing him with a passion he had never before experienced and he liked it. He loved the feel of her hands in his hair, her face on his. Just when Harry was contemplating they go find some place secret the bell rang and the door was thrown open with a bang. Harry and Ginny sprung apart and looked up at the door to see a bunch of students looking at them in complete shock. Harry distinctly saw Sirius craning his neck to see what was happening and James next to him asking what he could see.

Harry sprung up and with a frightened glance towards Ginny, ushered the students in. They all clambered in, some giggling and some whispering excitedly. As the last of the students rolled in, Hermione burst through the door, completely out of breath. She looked at Harry and Ginny's flushed faces and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Harry thought it was best he started the lesson before things went awry. He cleared his throat.

"Umm...can you please settle down," said Harry hesitantly and he noted with pleasure that they all obeyed without a second thought. "Well, most of you will know my name or...you may not," he said with a smirk as his eyes landed on The Marauders. They let out low chuckles. "But I will introduce myself anyway, I'm Professor Scarr and here to observe the lesson is Professor Granger and Professor Rivera. For today's lesson, I merely wanted to discuss certain things that I, along with the other Defense Professors, deemed essential for your education. I will also give you an outline of what we will be doing in future lessons, what I expect from you, putting in account your other Professor does not return. Basically, the usual, or what I hope is the usual for you. Any questions before I start?" Harry watched as all the students craned their necks to see if anyone had a question. When no-one answered, Harry ploughed on, thinking that if he was going to do this properly, he would do it now.

"Firstly, I'm sure you are all aware of this, but we are living in a war. And this is not an everyday, what-should-I-wear today war, or a prank war, this is a real war. A war that has undoubtedly affected all of us in many ways. I would not be surprised if more than a few of you could account for murders of family, friends and so on. One day you will leave Hogwarts and its safety and you'll be put in situation where you don't have Professor McGonagall's guidance or Professor Dumbledore's warnings.

"It'll be you. You, for yourself. And let's face it, what is you without protection, or knowledge? You're nothing. You're a lone, vulnerable figure. And that's why I, and several other Professors are here teaching you. A common misconception regarding this class is that we give you a bunch of fancy curses, you learn them and BANG, you're safe. Wrong. I'm here to teach you what's right, what's wrong. I'm here to enlighten you. Because in Hogwarts, you can't help but be a little too naïve. You blindly follow the misconceptions of society not knowing, that at some point they will be the cause of your downfall." Harry swept the class with a penetrating gaze and was happy to see he had their unwavering attention. Some looked awed, others positively scared. He shrugged. What else could he expect?

"Now, a day ago, while talking to your fellow Professor Her-sorry-Granger, something was brought to my attention that I want to discuss with you. Last year, your sixth year, who was your defense professor?" He looked around the class and was surprised to see a boy, partly covered in shadows, raise his hand.

"Yes Mr…"

"Snape." At this, all three professors whipped around to the boy in question. Harry almost hit himself over the head. Of course! This was his father's year, meaning it was Snape's year as well. He quickly shook his head and nodded at Snape.

"His name was Professor Witchett," said Snape, in what Harry noted was an overly greasy voice.

"And do any of you know why Professor Witchett is not here today, teaching you? Yes…Miss E-Evans?"

"He died." Harry looked at her in they eye before turning to the class.

"Wrong." This was met by silence, and then confusion.

"-WHAT?"

"-It was in the newspaper-off his rocker!"

Harry laughed.

"You misunderstand me," Harry called to the class. They quieted down. "He did not die. He was murdered. Along with his family, in his own home. He was murdered, he did not die." The student's eyes widened with comprehension.

"He was murdered by none other than Voldemort." Harry watched in glee as the several people shrieked, one fell off his chair and another swore loudly. Beside him, Ginny snorted and Hermione frowned. "Now I know amongst most of you the name Voldemort is feared very much. I am proud in saying that I am not fazed by a name. While many have every reason to fear Voldemort, they have no reason to fear his name. Why? Because it is his name! I will try and impress upon you just how important this is. I am not going to force you to say his name but under no circumstances will I stop saying his name. I just want you to understand that it is just a name. And who knows? Maybe you'll get over it." Many looked very doubtful that they would get over it, but Harry knew better. What was a better example than the two people who sat beside him? They had overcome their fear and Harry had everything to do with it.

"The reason I brought up your Professor is that I wanted to show you that even a Professor is unsafe! Anything can happen, at anytime. Anything is possible." Harry was about to continue when he saw Remus raise his hand. Harry found this very ironical, seeing as how it had not been long ago when he had raised his hand to ask Professor Lupin a question. Ginny seemed to be thinking along the same lines because she began to laugh. Harry rolled his eyes at her and turned to Remus.

"Yes Mr Lupin?"

"No offence sir, but are you saying that we have no chance? That we will die young and that we should be resolved to that fact? Because then, what would the Defense be for?" Harry let out a whoop of laughter.

"You've misunderstood me. I'm saying the exact opposite. No, hopefully you will not die young," said Harry and he couldn't help saying that with a bit of sarcasm. "But what I'm saying is that you should never be resolved to that fact. In fact, what I'm saying is you need defense, for however else will you Death? Because we all know Death's hunger does not abate. You need to survive and for that you need survival skills and for that you need me. You need to learn how to defend yourself, how to fight what's wrong. Never be resolved to death, fight, fight until you die. Because it's better to die with life." Remus nodded in understanding and Harry looked around the class. "Please don't make that mistake; it's not one you want to make." Harry was about to continue when Hermione gently nudged him. Harry turned to her.

"What's the matter?"

"Harry, you've only a little while left, maybe you should wrap it up." Harry nodded and turned to the class.

"Now we don't have much time left and so I'll just tell you basically what we're going to be doing this term. I'm not exactly sure how much you've done and so next lesson I'm gonna give you a test, just to see how far you've gotten. Basically, what I plan to do is give you a recap on everything, show you several nifty spells that will always come in handy, and take you through some dark creatures and how to face them. As the term comes to end, we'll delve into deeper things like the Unforgivables. Obviously, you will not be performing them, but everyone, and let me stress that, everyone needs to recognise the Unforgivables. That's pretty much it, and we've got ten minutes remaining, feel free to ask me and Professor Rivera and Professor Granger any questions you want answered." At first no body put their hand up, but slowly, some people put their hands up. Harry sifted through the people and saw that his mother's hand was up.

"Yes Miss Evans?"

"Professor, aren't the Unforgivables illegal?"

"Yes indeed," Harry said with a smile. Lily looked uncomfortable.

"Well, aren't you going to be performing them? Surely, that is illegal?"

"I assure you Miss Evans; I will not practice the Cruciatus on you. I have found a much more suitable substitute." Harry looked around and saw that Sirius' hand was in the air.

"Yes Mr Black?"

"How old are you?" Harry was stunned into silence. He wished he could say the same for Ginny. She started laughing like a maniac. Even Hermione was laughing, but it was more like a chuckle compared to Ginny. Harry cleared his throat.

"Eighteen next July." This was met by extreme uproar. Harry rolled his eyes and was quite relived when the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

James Potter sat at the Gryffindor table eating dinner with his three best friends. His eyes however, were not on his beef casserole, rather, Professor Scarr. Said Professor was currently involved in a heated discussion with Professor Rivera, the male professor Rivera. By their hand motions and from what little James could discern from their conversation, it was about Quidditch. James grinned. All the better. It seemed, strangeness aside, this professor was growing on him. And judging by the silence of his peers, the same was for them. Thinking that the silence was getting annoying, he decided to start a conversation about…Professor Scarr.

"Cool Professor, isn't he?"

"I hear you prongs. That lesson was about the best we've ever had. Totally knew what the hell he was talking about. Not like that Witchett last year. What made Dumbledore hire him is beyond me. I wonder how the other professors are?"

"Rumour has it the one with weird name is complete bonkers. She was teaching the first years about something called Nargles."

"What a laugh," said Sirius. Suddenly, his face brightened. "Hey LILY, spare seat here. Right beside me and…you won't guess who…James! Surprised you? I know." James looked up to see Lily stomping towards them. She looked positively alight.

"Hey Evans, how's it going?"

"None of your business Potter. Stick your nose back in that casserole or I'll shove it there."

"Oohh…not nice…c'mon brighten up Lily. I mean we have a new professor, and he's positively dashing. Filled the castle with gossip, his lot did, didn't they?" said Sirius, one arm draped around an angry Lily. James grinned.

"Yeah Evans, go on, you're Head Girl. Tell us what you've fished up on them." Lily looked up at him and quirked her eyebrow.

"And what happened to your title? Please tell me you dropped it!"

"What title?" Lily gave him one long glare then looked away. She leaned forward and calmly put some food on to her plate. She then slowly started eating, not even sparing a glance to the four boys who sat watching her, patiently awaiting the saucy gossip she would be soon be spewing. Even though she knew this, she still took extremely long eating just so she could infuriate them. The Marauders loved gossip. She loved anyone but The Maruaders. After an utterly quiet and infuriating twenty minutes she looked up, wiping her mouth with a napkin. She feigned surprise at their eager and anticipating faces.

"Oh my, what's the matter?"

James rolled his eyes. "Come on Evans, you've had your dinner. Now give us ours." Evans looked at them pitifully.

"I don't exactly know what you're expecting! I'm telling you, if Dumbledore had told me something, you would've been there too!" She scowled at them, but when they continued to stare at her, she sighed. "Alright, there's not much I can say. Alice saw them leaving the hall and she thought that she should leave too, you know to get there early and get good seats. So she left behind them and when she reached the door, she heard them-Professor Scarr and Professor Rivera-talking. And-well...umm...you know Alice! She got a bit interested and she listened to what they were saying. And she heard Rivera saying something like 'I know its hard seeing them' and something about 'you'll get used to it'. And before that she had heard Rivera say something like it's not only you teaching it's Luna, Neville and some other names I can't remember. Alice said it sounded a bit like he didn't want to teach and like they had been forced or something. There you go, you big-idiots. I don't know why I always give into you. I really shouldn't have told you." Sirius grinned at Lily and James laughed.

"Evans, that's quite a lot to say for 'there's not much I can say'," said James in between snorts of laughter. Lily turned a pale white at this. Remus rolled his eyes at James.

"Stop it Pr-James. What happened next Lily?" Lily shuffled her feet before shrugging.

"Nothing. Everybody saw what happened next. The bell rang; we came in and saw the two of them in a heated kiss. End of story." James snorted.

"Interesting, they're in a relationship. Did you see how they looked when we walked in? They looked petrified or something." This sent Sirius and Peter into rounds of hysterical laughter. Remus frowned.

"Yes they're all very interesting. But I just don't get it. I mean they appeared out of nowhere, they weren't seen for a day or so and then all of a sudden they're our teachers. And it wasn't planned!" Peter looked up at him.

"How do you know? That it wasn't planned for them to be teachers?"

"Because I literally crashed into that Granger, Professor Granger or whatever. She was asking me why I wasn't in class and she didn't know that the other teacher hadn't turned up and she didn't hint anything about teaching us. She just looked like a student who was excited at the prospect of reading."

"What do you mean you crashed into her Remus?" asked Sirius slyly. Remus rolled his eyes. Lily however, looked at him, her face scrunched up, as though deep in thought.

"What do you mean, 'excited at the prospect of reading'?" Remus frowned.

"Well that's the reason I crashed into her. She was carrying a tonne of books, they were covering her whole body. That's why she didn't see me." Remus then paused, apparently deep in thought. "Another reason why I don't think they had planned to teach was because Madame Pince came up to us when the books were all falling and she was screaming bloody murder. And then she was promising things like detention and I was sorta resigned to endless nights of pointless work but Granger got up and was practically begging they don't get detention. If she was a teacher, why on Earth would she be afraid of detention?" This was met with silence. And then...

"SO THAT'S WHAT HE MEANT!" bellowed Sirius. The four of them looked up at him in bewilderment.

"Who meant what?" asked Remus politely, as though talking to a child. Sirius jumped down and leaned closer to them.

"Remember when we were talking to Scarr when Lily was dragging James off to do some stuff. He said 'I know how fiery red-heads can be'. He's dating one, so of course he knows how they can get. He's probably on the end of all that nonsense." At this, all four boys burst out laughing. Lily turned on them, eyes blazing.

"What do you mean, 'how they can get'!" she screeched, attracting the attention of several neighboring people. "Oh you will pay, yes you will Black you great big prat, you and that buffoon Potter-"

However, she could not continue, for at that moment, the doors to the Great Hall burst open and in came a terrified looking Rosmerta, from the Three Broomsticks. Her clothes were torn in areas and her hair was one big mass of horror. She had a scratch on her face and dried blood on her hands. James had never seen her look so ruffled. Sirius turned to him in shock.

"Is that Madame Rosmerta!" They all turned to the woman.

"Albus, oh Albus! Attack. Please, help. I only just got away. Death Eaters, swarms of them. Killing people. Albus, please." And with that she collapsed to the floor sobbing. Dumbledore was immediately on his feet.

"All students are to return to their dorms immediately. Prefects, Headboy, Headgirl, I am depending on you to lead the younger children there safely. Minerva, call Mr Filch. Tell him to close the school off. No one will enter or leave. Filius, get Poppy immediately. Madame Rosmerta needs to be attended to immediately. Is that understood? Those who are able, please follow me. There are things to do."

**Yipeee, fun or not? Let me know. And i've put some romance (total bleurgh) i definitely didnt like it and if u think so too then tell me cuz itll be out of the story faster than u can say thankgod. review, its the onlii way to let me noe.!!!  
**


	7. Disaster

A Twist In Time

**I've actually forgotten to thank my reviewers (on the actual story page) so i will now:**

**THANKS: loveyoualways****, Lexie Green, mwppfan4ever, EssenceOfPhlegm, gizzer18, lemonwedges4, Pure Magical, Ellyanah****- FOR reviewing chapter 6! **

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter, and I'm quite happy I don't, it would'nt of turned out nearly as good as it was!**

Chapter 7: Disaster**  
**

Harry felt like his innards had just fallen out of his bum. His throat choked up and he was momentarily breathless. He was completely oblivious to everything and everyone around him. He could not hear the chaos below him, where students were fleeing to their dormitories, shouting hysterically. He could not hear Dumbledore urgently handing out instructions to students and teachers alike. He could not hear Ginny calling his name urgently. All he could hear was her. Her loud, agonised sobs. And they were like needles to his ear. They _hurt.__A lot_. And then it was over. The noise, confusion and utter chaos all caught up with him.

"HARRY!"

He spun around to see a terrified looking Ginny grasping his shoulders, shaking him urgently. He took in her disheveled appearance, hair unrestrained, eyes teary and full of fear.

"Ginny," he whispered, completely dazed. She gave him another shake but his eyes remained glazed. "Ginny, what's happening?" he asked, his voice still a whisper.

"Harry, get up, what are you doing? There's an attack on Hogsmeade! We have to go help Professor Dumbledore! Harry? PEOPLE ARE DYING!" That woke him up. His eyes focused and his muscles tensed. He shot up out of his chair. He took in the scene, and felt a jolt of fear run through him. This was not good. People _were_ dying. He turned on his heel and ran down the hallway, the other five not far behind him. He pushed between the panicked students, trying not to hurt anyone in the process. He reached the large double doors and pushed through them urgently. He bounded outside, through the entrance hall, and up to the main doors. He spun around to the rest.

"Where are the others? The teachers?" he asked hurriedly.

"Some are inside, but some have already apparated to the scene," cried Hermione, her fear evident. Harry nodded his head and was about to start talking but Hermione grabbed his arm and held him back, her face filled with panic and fear. "Harry, I know you want to go to Hogsmeade to help, but I don't think we should." This was met by silence. Harry felt anger build up inside of him.

"Why," he snapped, not really caring that it was Hermione right now. "You of all people know we're capable! People are dying Hermione, do you expect me to lounge around and wait for them to return and maybe help with the death count? Because-"

"NO, Harry," began Hermione, looking positively shaken. "I know we're capable, but Harry, we can't interfere like this! What if Voldemort's there? What if he sees you? He absolutely can't find out that you're here Harry! It would be utter chaos! It's too dangerous! It's too much of a risk!" Harry looked straight into her eyes. She stared back at him, the plea for him to understand clear in her eyes. He slowly shook his head.

"I'm sorry Hermione, but I'm going to have to take that risk. I told you. I can't stand by and let people die. I'm sorry-"

"Harry, you have to understand-"

"No, Hermione, _you_ understand! I may not be able to go and tell everyone their futures and warn them, but I am going to do this! I will help them, and I don't care! It's just not me, not us, to sit by and watch. I'm going to help, with or without you." He looked at her, and she stared right back, her eyes telling him everything she thought about it. Slowly she nodded her head.

"I-I should've known better Harry. I know you won't back out." She sighed, looking troubled. "Very well, shall we?" They all nodded and with that they turned and ran down the steps to the castle and off across the grounds. They ran with all their might, trying to reach the main gates as quickly as possible. As soon as Harry passed the gates, he grabbed Ginny's hand and quickly apparated to Hogsmeade.

Harry felt his breath catch in his throat. The streets were in turmoil. People ran around screaming, jets of light flying hither and thither. Men dressed in black cloaks stalked through the streets, setting houses alight, killing people with ease. Their side was losing. That much was evident. Those who were fighting were quickly losing and Harry watched as people fell to the ground, dead or incapable of fighting. He turned to others, his job becoming clear.

"Hermione, Ron and Neville, I want you three to go back to the castle, do you understand?" He was met by three cries of protest. "Look you don't understand, we need someone to stay in the castle. Voldemort doesn't attack Hogsmeade for fun! There's every chance Death Eaters might come up to the castle. I need you there incase that happens! Just patrol the corridors, and contact us in the normal way. I need to know what's happening here, understand? Look around, this is no normal attack. This is just a cover up; something else is going down tonight. I want you there, and now!" They nodded their heads, although they still looked a little put off. Harry nodded.

"Quick, go." The three of them turned around and disapparated.

"Good. Ginny, Luna, you can see as well as I can. Stay close, don't stray and keep your coins close. I don't want you to take risks. Stun 'em, do anything to get them down. If you feel you have no choice, apparate back to the castle. Try and take a Death eater or two back with you, I want to know the real reason behind the attack, got it? Okay?" They nodded, both slightly pale. "Okay, let's go! Remember, stay safe!"

Harry ran into the fray trying to make sense of it all but gave up when he realized he couldn't. He stunned a death eater who was running around sending jets of green light everywhere. He ran up to the death eater, elbowing someone who had tried to throw a punch at him and bound the stunned man. He stunned another death eater and using his other arm, reached into the death eater's breast pocket and searched for something, in fact, anything. He retrieved a scruffy piece of paper and was about to spell it when he felt himself tumbling over the stunned man. He staggered onto his feet and narrowly dodged a killing curse. He dodged yet another killing curse and fired a stunner. The man deflected it and sent another killing curse. Harry dodged it, and taking no chances this time, charged at the man. He bulldozed the man to the ground and before he had time to recover, he turned around and aimed his wand at the piece of parchment in the stunned Death Eater's hand.

"PORTUS!" he screamed and watched as the man was portkeyed to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, this moment of hesitation cost him a lot. The man had recovered and had kicked Harry in the shins. Harry let out a roar as his head made contact with the ground. He rolled around and watched as a jet of green light blasted the floor he had been laying on moments before. He looked up, head spinning and saw the figure towering over him.

"Right little bugger you are? I don't have time for sorry idiots like you," said the muffled voice from behind the mask and Harry was sure he had heard that voice before. Just as he was going to fire the killing curse, Harry rolled over and kicked out, catching the man in between the legs. He pushed himself up and was shocked to see the figure still standing, in no obvious pain. His senses came to, and he realized he,_ no_, she, was cackling evilly.

"Think I was a boy did you?" cackled the monster and suddenly the voice made sense. It was Bellatrix, Bella, Sirius' killer. Harry felt rage pound through him and he was momentarily blinded by his need to get revenge. His senses numbed and all rational thought was blown out of his mind. His breath was coming out in great gusts of wind as he tried to restrain himself. But it was no use. All he could think of was her, her wand and his wand. And her inevitable death. He raised his wand.

"How's it going dear old Bella?" The figure seemed momentarily shocked. Harry smiled grimly. "Time to get a few things sorted out." And with that he started firing hex after hex, paying no mind to the chaos around him. He cornered her with all he had, not leaving any room for her to be on the offense. She was continuously deflecting spells, and was often forced to physically dodge his spells. Harry could very well detect her growing fear, and he was happy to see that she would soon be paying for all she had done. She had ruined his life and he was going to ruin hers. Harry now had her cornered on the wall of a small shop for quills. He looked at her with a hungry expression.

"STUPEFY!" he screamed and she just was able to dodge the red jet of light. The spell hit the wall beside her and the wall blew out with the force of a bomb. Rocks rained down on her and she was beaten down. She screamed as one of the rocks hit the glass windows and she was showered with small shards of glass. Harry stood above her, wand raised. She was cowering on the floor, face and hands all bloody. She was whimpering and Harry caught the phrases 'My lord, my lord'.

"Feel the pain Bella? Feel it? Good. Feel it. And don't cower please, its very _not_ you! And stop your whimpering. Your lord is not here. Doing big business tonight, isn't he? Here, why don't I help?" He walked up to her, and lifted her chin and made her stare right at him. To Harry's shock, she merely gave him one long look before spitting right in his face. Harry recoiled like a snake and quickly wiped his face. He hissed angrily at her.

"WHY YOU-" But he was not able to continue as dread filled his heart and threaded itself through his spine. He felt chills run up and down his back. What on Earth was happening? He spun around and suddenly he knew. Why hadn't he noticed the deathly quiet? Before him, hundreds of Dementors were gliding towards him slowly, drawing in deep, rattling breaths. Behind him he heard a shriek of laughter.

"I agree little boy, it is time to get a few things sorted out. Like this." And he felt himself being thrown back into the wall. He let out a gasp of pain and he felt his eyes water. Bellatrix stared at him with death in her eyes.

Harry heard the Dementors draw closer to him and he began to have trouble breathing. He shivered as a flood of memories tumbled into his mind. His parents, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore…and on they went. He moaned in pain. He felt his insides freeze up and his breath catch in his throat. He knees gave out and he sunk to the floor and he thought he heard Bellatrix laughing at him. His body was shaking all over and he felt sick. He felt himself vomit up his dinner. The images began to play out in front of him. He saw his mother screaming, a flash of green light and he cried out. He heard her screams as she died. His mother's voice tore into his ears and he screamed out as it reverberated through his body. The scene changed before his eyes and he found himself facing a graveyard. He saw Cedric fall beside him and before he knew it he was falling as well, his skull making hard contact with floor. He looked into Cedric's dead eyes and he started convulsing. He couldn't take it, he was breaking. He felt the biting of the Cruiciatus curse as it rippled through his body. He screamed in anguish and felt whatever sanity he had leave him. He closed his eyes and opened them only to see Sirius falling behind the Veil. He let out a hoarse breath and vomited again. He knew what was coming and shut his eyes when he saw His mentor and Headmaster crumple to the ground. Ignoring the pounding in his head he weakly raised his wand and focused his thoughts on Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Sirius, Neville, Luna and his parents…the people he had met, and yet had never really met. He pictured them together, all the happy times they had shared. He felt a breeze emanating from his wand but he didn't notice the Patronus that burst out of his wand for at that moment his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he felt no more.

FCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFCFC

James felt a shiver run down his spine. He had never felt so shaken in his life. He watched numbly as Rivera, the female one, paced next to him agitatedly. Granger was deathly pale, staring down at what looked like a galleon as though her life depended on it. Rivera, the male one, was whispering heatedly to Dumbledore. Next to him, Lily Evans, Head Girl, looked petrified. Again, he shivered. He could still see Madame Rosmerta crying, the image biting into him like razor sharp teeth. He remembered how everyone had rushed back to their dormitories, Lily and himself in front. He had then been asked back. And this is what he had walked in on. Dumbledore and Rivera's voices floated back down to him.

"-don't understand! Harry hasn't contacted us! Something's up!"

"It is not safe Mr Rivera, it is too much of a risk to send anyone yet-"

"YOU said the Death Eaters had apparated away!"

"The fact still remains it could be a trap-"

"NO-" However they were both cut off by Granger. She had walked up to the pair and James could see she was shaking slightly.

"Professor, Ron is right! It isn't a trap. The attack was set up to draw our attention away from what is really happening today! Something is going down and Voldemort doesn't want to take any chances!" Dumbledore was about to answer her but at that moment something jumped right through the double doors. He felt Lily jump next to him. Consciously or not, James didn't know, but she had grabbed James hand and was holding on to it like a lifeline. James watched in shock as _he_, or his animagus form came bounding in through the doors emanating white light like that of an angels. He heard the two Rivera's and Granger gasp. James looked around quickly. Was this Sirius' idea of a prank? Surely not. But he had no time to think about it because at that moment it galloped to the three Professors and opened its mouth and he heard Professor Scarrs voice floating out of the figure. Except it wasn't really his voice. More of a croak.

_Met Bellatrix. Dementors here. Help. Voldemort up to something._

And then the figure vanished. And then the professors were all running, including Dumbledore to the exit. James felt sick. Dementors? In Hogsmeade? He watched the professors leave and stood idly, not sure what to do.

"Evans what do you think we should do?" She turned to him with wide eyes, and James was glad to see she wasn't about to scream at him for one reason or another.

"I don't know, I guess we should just wait…for…umm…for them to return…if they do?" she squeaked, and James noticed she was more asking a question than telling him anything. He frowned.

"Come on Evans, don't tell me you doubt Dumbledore's skill!"

"What do you mean?" she asked, half offended, half bewildered.

"I heard your question. They _will_ come back. Dumbledore's the strongest wizard ever! And look at Scarr! He seems to know exactly what he's doing! I'm pretty sure he's a brilliant duelist! And the rest of them, they're brilliant too, well, so I've heard."

"D'you think?" asked Lily, as though his word was gospel. James felt a smile unfurl on his face.

"'Course Evans!" And then he smiled at her. She smiled back, a bit shyly. But when he continued to smile at her, the smile slid off her face.

"Why're you smiling at me?" she asked, word's laced in suspicion.

"No reason," he said innocently. That didn't work.

"Potter," she started dangerously. He sighed, smiling completely vanishing. Then it reappeared like lightning.

"Fine, fine. I just wanted to ask, did you notice that…that…"

"Yes…"

"Well, that we actually had a conversation without screaming at each other. Cool, huh?" Lily stared at him. And stared. James got a bit nervous. He was about to ask her something when he felt someone poke him in his side. He jumped about a mile into the air, causing Lily to scream shrilly. He felt a hand clamp over his mouth. His heart racing, he opened his mouth and bit the hand.

"AARRGGHHH!"

"MMMPPPHHHHH"

"PFFFTTTT-THHHARRRGHHH"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"SHHH Lily! Keep it down! Do you want to get us caught! You acted like I was the Grim-sodding-Reaper! It's me, M-E, SIRIUS! Would you like me to spell it for you?"

James, meanwhile, was trying to calm his racing heart. Sirius, Remus and Peter had come into the hall with _his_ cloak and scared the crap out of them. James watched as Lily squirmed uncomfortably, obviously wanting to give them the biggest tell off but not wanting to get in trouble.

"WHAT are you guys doing here?" whispered James shrilly.

"Well, I don't know if you know, but I think you should know, that the common room is utterly boring at times like these," barked Sirius sarcastically. The rest glared at him and he had the shame to look at his feet. But not for long.

"So what's happened so far?" James sighed.

"Well, Dumbledore gave us the order to remain here while he went out. From what I could gather Dumbledore, the defense teachers and McGonagall went out to fight. We were just standing here when all of a sudden some Death Eater just pops into existence right in front of us, portkey I think, and then Rivera, Rivera, Granger, Santelli and Glax rush in, bind the guy and take him to Dumbledore's office. Anyway, they were all talking and when Scarr didn't turn up they all started panicking and then-" James cleared his throat nervously, sending meaningful glances to the three boys –"a _stag_ with all this white light comes in and Scarr's voice tells us something and then the teachers all rush out and…yeah." All the boys were looking at him with wide eyes. Remus whispered something, but none of them caught it.

"What?" asked Sirius.

"A Patronus. It was probably Scarr's Patronus." Understanding dawned on all of their faces.

"What did it say?" asked Peter, completely awed.

"I cant really-" Lily cut-in.

"I know. It said "Met Bellatrix. Dementors here. Help. Voldemort up to something."

"Well," said Remus quietly. "Dementors are clear enough. Help, I'm sure he needed it. Voldemort- well he's always up to something. But Bellatrix? I mean how can you meet a _star_?"

"Not a star," whispered Sirius who looked faint.

"What?"

"Bellatrix. That's my cousin. Remember? She graduated in our fourth year. Shit. I can't believe she actually became a Death Eater. I mean she always bragged she would one day be You-Know-Who's most loyal, but I never thought she would actually join." Sirius lapsed into silence, and the rest stared at him nervously. After a while, he shrugged. "I guess it was expected." James agreed, but he didn't like the way it was affecting Sirius.

However, he didn't have time to ponder it, for at that moment the doors to the Great Hall burst open and in rushed a group of teachers holding something-wait-someone on a stretcher. He squinted and was shocked to see Professor Scarr lying on the stretcher, his eyes bloodshot and face deathly pale. He was convulsing and vomiting, every so often some blood. He had numerous scratches all over his body and his robes were dotted with red splotches all over. Before he had time to even decipher the cacophony of events, Professor Granger came running over to him, face deathly pale and eyes watery.

"James, Lily, I need you to run ahead to Madame Pomfrey and tell her to prepare everything she has that is even slightly related to Dementors. Quick, GO!"

"Right, Professor," said James quickly and with that he bolted out of the hall at record speed, Lily on his heels. He didn't have time to think or care. Professor Scarr's image was every bit disturbing and it had him running. He didn't want to have to see Scarr again. He was every bit thankful he had a reason to get the bloody hell out of there. He paid no mind to Lily who was shouting for him to slow down or to the portraits that were firing questions at him. He skidded round the corner and banged through the Hospital Wing doors. Madame Pomphrey looked up at him in alarm.

"Mr Potter, what is the matter-"

"Madame P-P-Pomphrey!" shouted James, heart racing. "P-P-Professor Scarr i-is badly hurt. D-Dementors and Professor G-Granger told you to prepare everything you had for treating Dementor attacks." She looked at him for a moment, in what must have been shock, before rushing to her office, screaming utter nonsense. James just stood staring at Madame Rosmerta who was lying in a bed down at the end of the ward. He shivered. He felt Lily walk up to him, slowly. He turned to face her and he could see she was struggling with something to say. Again, there was no time to ponder it.

The doors flew open and James had to jump out of the way as Dumbledore came in with Scarr, trying to calm his convulsing body. Madame Pomphrey burst out of her office, potion bottles in her hand. However, he didn't get to see what happened next because Dumbledore had walked up to them and was now staring at them sadly.

"I think you should now return to your dorms. This is nothing of the sort I want my students seeing. Thank you, your help was very much needed." He turned around and led them out of the hall where they quietly made their way back to their common room.

"Azkaban," came Lily's voice from afar. He clambered in through the portrait hole, hardly registering what he was doing. He stumbled over to the couches by the fire and dumped himself in one, happy that the common room was completely empty. Lily hesitantly took a seat on the couch beside him. They sat in silence for what felt like hours, but were really a mere few minutes. When James thought he could bear it no longer, the portrait hole opened to reveal an out of breath Remus, Sirius and Peter. Sirius ran over to them, looking troubled.

"What happened?" asked James, eager for the silence to stop.

"Well," sighed Remus, who looked like he could do with some sleep, "When the doors burst open, we all jumped under the cloak and I think everybody was a bit too preoccupied with Scarr to notice. Anyway, when you guys ran off to the Hospital Wing, we got a bit closer to the other teachers and we managed to get a rough idea of what happened."

"It was bloody scary," said Peter, shivering. "Scarr was vomiting like crazy, and shaking and Rivera, the girl, was trying to calm him down. And he was just blabbering nonsense. I don't think anyone understood him."

"What did he say?" asked a slightly scared Lily.

"Well, I heard him say something like parenthesis…or something," grunted Sirius. "And that makes all the sense in the world!"

"Really? I thought he was saying Parents or something!" exclaimed Remus.

"Yeah, Remus you're right…and something like Celtic…or Cedric…or something?" said Peter, scratching his chin. James frowned.

"Cedric, that's a name, isn't it? Who do you think he is?" They all shrugged.

"Well anyway," continued Sirius, running a hand through his hair. "When Dumbledore took Scarr to the Hospital Wing, we stayed behind with the defense professors. Girl Rivera was shivering like mad, saying that she…she was going to kill 'Bella'-which I'm thinking is Bellatrix-for, and note this, 'Everything she's done to Harry and her family'."

"And that," said Remus, "Basically means it's not the first time that Bellatrix has met these guys."

"Do you actually know what happened in Diagon Alley? Or with the guy they caught?" asked James, his voice a croak.

"Well, I think this is what happened," said Peter. "Scarr thought that something big was going down, so he sent Granger, Santelli and Boy Rivera to patrol the castle. He, Girl Rivera and Glax went into the fight. All I know is that around ten minutes into the fight, everyone apparated away and Dementors came in. Apparently, Scarr and Bellatrix got in a fight, Bellatrix set the Dementors and Harry and he was found…like _that_. That's pretty much all I got out of it. As for the guy…no idea."

"Same," grunted Sirius. "They were talking about Coins and…and Patronuses and stuff."

"Coins?" asked James in disbelief.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, Granger, when she was in the Hall, she had a galleon in her hand and was looking at it like a bunny was about to jump out of it or something!" They all sat and pondered this in silence before Remus sighed.

"I'm tired. I feel…sick. I think we should go to bed and talk about this later. I'm off." The rest nodded and they all clambered up to their dorms, save for James and Lily. James hadn't realized that he wasn't alone. He was thinking about You-Know-Who and all he had done. Would it ever stop? He just wanted to be a normal kid, but You-Know-Who always managed to get in the way. He turned to his side and was shocked to see Lily sitting there, staring at him intently. They both stayed quiet, not knowing what to say.

Finally, Lily spoke up.

"Potter…James. I know how you're feeling. It's okay to feel scared, honestly, we all do! Everyday, there's got to be some situation where we are completely scared, and contrary to what you think, it's alright to admit it-"

"Evans…just be quiet. I'm not afraid. So don't try and be my Pic-tiatrist or whatever! Just…just leave me alone. You seem to be mighty happy doing it every other inch of my life…what's changed?" Lily stared at him for a while, a flash of doubt in her eyes, before turning around.

"It's Psychiatrist." And that was all.

**Well, there you go! I know I wrote on my bio-pagey thing that I wouldn't update for three months, but I found writing this chapter a bit easier than what I thought. Mostly I did it on my breaks and stuff, cuz i sure as hell did study. Well anyway, please review, I didn't get as many reviews as i would've liked! Please people, are you losing interest! Gimme your thoughts on the matter! A friend of mine was asking when Luna was cumin bakk into the story cuz she seems real out of it, and although noone had brought it up as of yet i thought i'd tell you that she is a very important character towards the end and that she will** **be included more often later on! Oh yeh, and btw, i'll just be fixing up the past few chapters, and ill be doing exams, so update will take a bit long. Sorry and THANKS TO ALL MY REVIWERS YOU NICE PPL-now quick, keep being nice and review!**


	8. Developing Issues

A Twist In Time

**THANKS:**mwppfan4ever, HaruJam, EssenceOfPhlegm, lemonwedges4, doing 25 life in azkaban, Nightwing 509, vigi.limi- **FOR reviewing chapter 7!**

**Just a little WARNING: This chapter starts to delve into matters raised in HP7 and so if you have not read that book, plz don't read this chapter (even though you won't recognise the spoiler unless you've read the book...)! **

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter. Plain & Simple.**

Chapter 8: Developing Issues

Like most cases where death, destruction and pain were involved, Harry could barely remember anything from last week's events. Sure, he distinctly remembered his duel with Bellatrix, but from the moment the Dementors stepped in, all he could remember was a big black void, with hints of pain and anguish along the way. But the duel with Bellatrix alone was enough to send his mind reeling. Though oblivious to it at the time, Harry could now see how rashly he had acted. He'd pounced, without giving a thought to the consequences. And as he sat on his bed in the Hospital Wing with sunlight streaming in through the windows, he knew his actions would come running right back at him and bite him straight in the ass.

He sighed bitterly. This is exactly what Hermione had warned him about before they had charged off into battle. But inside he knew, no matter how big the consequences were, he did not regret fighting. Because if his effort meant one more life saved, he would always be ready to fight.

He just hoped he wouldn't always end up in the Hospital Wing. The last week had been absolute terror. Madam Pomfrey had chained him to the bed and forced several potions down his throat daily. It didn't help that he had vomited out each one minutes after ingesting it. In the end, it was discovered that he had swallowed a piece of glass and although he hadn't bothered trying to understand it, he merely knew it was stuffing up his digestion. Madam Pomfrey had proceeded to get rid of the glass and heal his throat where it had caused the most damage. It had been a tough week, most of it a blur in his head. He had been feverish and nauseous which made life all the more horrible. His fever hadn't broken until early today; an agonisingly long time. His friends had related the week's events and he was happy he couldn't remember the effects of the Dementors. It sounded horrible.

As he leant his head back onto his pillow, he heard footsteps approaching the Hospital Wing. He hoped it was Ginny or one of his friends because, quite frankly, he really did not feel like discussing last week's events. And he knew if it was Dumbledore,_all_ they would talk about was last week's events. He strained his ears, and he thought he heard more than one pair of footsteps heading his way. He grinned. Maybe it was his friends after all. He heard the doors open, and two people bickering like angry wolves enter.

"-just wanted to see him! Looked like absolute shit last week-"

"-yes, Potter, but maybe he doesn't want to see us, we're just his students-"

Harry let out a low chuckle. Although slightly disappointed it was not his friends, Harry was completely humored by the fact that his Mum and Dad were coming to see if he was ok. As the curtains around his bed were opened, he quickly whipped the smile off his face, not wanting to be bombarded with unnecessary and not to mention awkward questions. He looked up and smiled at them, trying his hardest not to laugh.

"HEY Professor!" shouted Sirius and Harry flinched.

"Hello everybody! Come in, just try not to be so loud, I still have a bit of a headache," he said and wished he could take it back the moment it came out. He watched in a sort of fascination as his Mum turned on his Dad and started shouting at him.

"SEE Potter! Professor Scarr is still in pain and you want to come here and annoy him with your big-headed attitude! I told you this was not a good idea!" Harry watched with trepidation as she opened her mouth to perhaps give him another round of verbal bashing.

"Er…Lily?" She spun around, looking slightly guilty, just as though she had only noticed he was in the room at that very moment.

"As much as I enjoy watching you giving James hell, I have to tell you that you could give a troll a headache," Harry said with a bright smile, watching as his Mum turned a bright shade of pink. His smile grew. Many people were not given the opportunity to order their parents around. He planned to make full use of it.

"Oh…oh! I'm so sorry Professor-"

"No matter! Now, I believe you were here visit!" Sirius walked forward, a childish grin on his face.

"Indeed we are! And wa-lah!" he said, retrieving a small wrapped box from his cloak with an almighty flourish. "We thought a nice little present might brighten your day!" Harry smiled happily, loving this Sirius more and more every minute.

"Thanks," he said, taking the present. But before he could un-wrap it, the doors to the Hospital Wing flew open, and in walked Hermione, Ron and Luna. His smile only got bigger.

"Hey Harry!" said Hermione excitedly as she ran over to his bed and gave him a massive hug. He squirmed uncomfortably. For such a small person, she was extremely strong.

"Hey mate! Hermione, get off the poor bloke, you're going to break his bones!" Hermione let go of Harry, all the time giving Ron a death-glare. She then turned to the Marauders and Lily and gave them a bright smile.

"Hello! Are you here visiting Harry?" They all nodded. She beamed. "That's so nice! Isn't it Harry?" she asked, turning to Harry, an odd gleam in her eyes. Behind her, Ron let out a low chuckle and Harry was sure he had caught on their private joke. They all turned to Luna who was gliding over to Harry's bed. She jumped up onto the edge, near his feet.

"Yes, hello Harry and friends," said Luna, pulling out the Quibbler and diving into it like an eager child. The Marauders and Lily looked a bit disconcerted but Harry, Ron and Hermione were all used to it. Harry turned to Hermione who was standing with Ron near the edge of his bed, dressed in everyday Muggle attire.

"Sirius, Remus, James, Peter and Lily got me a present! You came just on time. I was about to open it!" he said, retrieving said present and fumbling with the wrapper. Ron groaned.

"Well lucky you! We still have to wait for Christmas!" Everyone laughed and Harry managed to get the wrapper off, revealing a box of _Lindt Swiss Chocolate_. Harry laughed.

"Excellent, I haven't had these since I was a kid!" Hermione moved forward and let out a squeal.

"Harry! You have to let me have one! My Mum has never let me have any! It's not fair!" Harry laughed and Remus leaned forward.

"Why doesn't your Mum let you have any?"

"Oh, well, my parents are dentists and they're very much against sugary snacks. I think I grew up on sugar free snacks," she said with a frown. Remus smiled and was about to ask something else when James cleared his throat. They all turned to him.

"Err…Lily…Remus, what's a dentist? And what are they?" he asked, pointing at the chocolates. Sirius and Peter nodded in agreement. Ron stepped forward.

"Actually, I'd like to know as well!" Hermione and Harry looked at Ron in horror.

"And to think I thought you would know now, after being my friend for seven years!" said Hermione, in mock terror.

"Not to mention your Dad working in the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts!" said Harry, channeling Hermione's spirit. They both cracked grins at Ron.

"Well I'm sorry if I don't listen to my Dad rant about the most boring-"

"Never mind Ron," said Hermione, turning to James and Sirius. "A dentist is like a sort of doctor…err…healer who treats your teeth and stuff. As for the chocolate, it's just a popular type of Muggle chocolate, that's all. I was rather quite fond of them when I was young. Before I got my letter and came her-and went to school," finished Hermione, looking quite flustered. Harry jumped in to cover up for her slip up.

"Hermione pretty much covered it all. Here, let's all have one," he said, giving everyone a piece. They all ate theirs, except for Lily who said she didn't like them very much.

"Well," Ron said, with a disgusted look on his face, "I for one am happy I'm not a Muggle. Chocolate frogs are more my thing, I think." Hermione laughed when James, Peter and Sirius nodded their heads in agreement. Sirius turned to Lily.

"When you said you were getting him a present, I didn't know you meant_Muggle_ chocolate!"

"Well," said Lily, looking quite embarrassed, "My Mum sent me them and I don't really like them and it was really the only thing I could think of."

"Don't worry Lily, I liked them," Harry said, smiling. Ron snorted and was about to say something when Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey strode in through the Hospital Wing doors. Madam Pomfrey hurried off to her office while Dumbledore strode over to them looking quite serious.

"Good Morning everyone," started Dumbledore with a smile. "Harry, I am very happy to see you so happy and healthy! And you have visitors! I am sure Professor Scarr is very grateful that you made the effort to come see him, however, I am going to have to ask you to leave. I am sorry, but perhaps you can visit him another time?

"Oh! No Professor! We've outdone our stay anyway, we'll just be on our way back," said Lily quickly before turning to Harry. "We hope you get better soon enough."

"Yeah Professor," said the boys in unison. "Bye then," said James and with that they all walked out, albeit a little dejectedly.

"I am sorry Harry, I wish I could leave this for later, but I find it better that we get straight to it. And although I don't want to ask you this, urgency warrants that I do. Do you remember the man that you Portkeyed to Hogwarts?" Harry nodded, his forehead crinkled in confusion.

"Do you still have him? Has he run away?" asked Ron nervously.

"Thankfully, no, however, I'd like to settle matters earlier on in the case something like that does happen. Your friends, Miss Weasley and Mr Longbottom were present while I was questioning him under the influence of Veritaserum. When we asked for his name, Miss Weasley said that it was a matter of absolute importance that I summon you to the questioning. She said that you would explain the matter to me."

"What was his name?" asked Luna, who had now put the Quibbler away and was watching the conversation with interest.

"He claimed he was 'Mark Jugson'."

"Yeah…we've met on several occasions, but I don't get it, what's the matter?" asked Harry, now completely confused. Next to him, Hermione was muttering to herself and Ron was leaning on Harry's bed, hands in his pockets, thinking hard. Luna was sitting up straight, staring hard at the wall, as though it would give her the answers.

"I myself do not know. I remember him quite clearly myself. He graduated from Hogwarts three years ago, along with Bellatrix Lestrange-"

However, Dumbledore was cut-off mid sentence by Hermione who had let out a gasp of terror. Harry looked up at her and was immediately alarmed. Her eyes were wide with fear, her hand over her mouth.

"HARRY!" she shouted, rounding on him. Luna whipped her head around, eyes big. Ron stood up in alarm and Dumbledore walked forward, looking grave.

"What?" said Harry, just a little bit scared.

"What do we know about Jugson?" she gasped, her hand shaking. Harry thought hard, trying to remember everything about him.

"Well, he's dead. That much I remember. He was part of the group that attacked at Bill and Fleur's wedding, right?" said Harry lowly. "How odd? We captured him then and we questioned him too. Remember? He became a Death Eater when he was around 24 years old, isn't that right? What was the year…Oh yeah! He got initiated on the 1st of January 1980 and has been an inner circle member ever since then-"

There was silence.

"Harry, did you say 1980?" asked Dumbledore, his voice heavy and laced with dread. "As in _the 1980_ that is to pass in three years?"

Harry sat there, breathing hard. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself, but it wasn't working. It just didn't work. He threw the covers off himself, got up and looked at all of them.

"This is bad. It's because of us isn't it?" asked Harry urgently. "I need to see him," whispered Harry. He turned around and strode out of the Hospital Wing, the others on his heel.

"This isn't meant to happen," he called back to them. "Hermione, you said our mere presence disrupts the time line, right? But tell me, how does that work? We've never met Jugson here, only back in our world! Why, how?" It wasn't Hermione who answered, but Dumbledore.

"Think about it Harry! Your mere presence. Say the day you turned up, one of Jugsons children, nieces or nephews wrote home to talk about you. Then say, this would somehow affect his decision in joining the Death Eater's! It is like a chain. And your mere presence started it, or so to say, lit the string. It is not necessary for you to meet him directly."

"I still don't understand!" said a frustrated Harry.

"Neither do I, Professor," said Ron, his voice wobbly. Luna fell into step with him and looked him straight in the eye.

"Think about it! Pretend you had a hero whom you worship, love and look up to. He may be dead, on the other side of the world or non existent, a mere legend, but the fact remains that his actions influence your actions. If he brushed his teeth fifteen times a day, you would opt to do so! Even though you have never met him, he still influences your everyday actions, down to what you wear every day. That is what we're talking about!"

Harry rounded the corner and walked up to gargoyle, breathing heavily. He was angry that this happened. How many other things were being pushed into affect before their time? How many things were happening when in reality, they were never meant to happen?

"Lemon Drop." Dumbledore's voice came from afar and pulled Harry out of his reverie. He shook his head and hopped up onto the gargoyle and entered the office. Looking around, he saw Neville and Ginny standing off to a corner, discussing something. Jugson stood in the middle of the room, not restrained by anything. Harry found this odd, seeing as the first thing Jugson would do was try to escape.

"Professor, don't you think he should be restrained somehow?" asked Ron, who had obviously been thinking along the same lines.

"Don't worry Mr Rivera, I have an invisible force holding him right in place. The worst he can do is blink at you."

"Brilliant," breathed Hermione beside him. Ginny and Neville walked up to them, seemingly finished with their conversation.

"Do you see the glitch?" she asked, her eyes wide. Harry nodded and didn't mind when she slipped her hand into his. He gave it a squeeze and turned to Dumbledore.

"We shall not discuss those events here, for now is not the time," said Dumbledore with a meaningful glance at Jugson. They all turned to said man who as looking at them with glazed eyes. Obviously the effects of Veritaserum.

"How far have you gotten into the questioning?" asked Luna.

"Only his name so far," sighed Neville.

"I think I should do the asking, but if you feel there is anything that should be asked, feel free to tell me," he said walking forward to stand in front of Jugson. "Just to make sure, what is your name?"

"Mark Jugson," came the dull answer.

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

"When did you become a Death Eater?" There was a pause.

"Last year." Harry looked at the man in shock. Dumbledore turned back to them with a question in his eyes. Did this mean that it was not because of them that this man had become a Death Eater? But then, why did the Jugson of their time tell them that he had become a Death Eater in 1980? How had it changed? He was about to voice his concerns when Luna stepped forward with a frown.

"He's lying."

"What?" snapped Hermione who looked flustered. "He's under Veritaserum! How can he be lying! That's just silly."

"You mean he _was_ under Veritaserum," she said to Hermione. She turned to Dumbledore. "When did you give the man the Veritaserum?"

"An hour ago I think."

"It must have worn off. You can tell when someone is under the effect of Veritaserum. Their eyes look glazed and their not prone to thinking about their answers. Look at him, his eyes." Harry looked at the man and saw that the glazed look the man wore before was now gone. Harry looked closer and saw the telltale signs of anger. He must know he was caught out in his silly game.

"Do we have more?" asked Ron. Dumbledore nodded. He walked over to his cabinet, pulled out the small vile and gave the man three drops. The man was immediately plunged into a sort of stupor.

"When did you become a Death Eater?"

"A week ago." Harry closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing. He opened them and waited for Dumbledore's next question.

"And what brought you to join Voldemort?"

"I was accosted by a man and was given the offer to join." A pause. "I joined."

"Who gave you the offer?"

"Lucius Malfoy."

"What were your orders for the battle at Hogsmeade?"

"To cause as much chaos and destruction as possible. To spare no one." Everyone in the room shivered.

"Was there any specific reason you were to fight that night? Was Voldemort up to something?"

"I was not told directly but I heard from Mulciber that Voldemort wished for something to be deposited somewhere, and that he did not need distractions. It was a diversion."

"Do you know what the object was? Or where the place was?"

"No."

"I see," sighed Dumbledore. He turned to the rest of them. "Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Yes actually," said Luna. "Why don't we ask him about the missing defense Professor?"

"Excellent idea!" said Dumbledore before turning back to Jugson, his face set in a firm line again. Harry smiled a little. "Do you have any idea as to the whereabouts of Jeremy Aldridge, the defense professor of Hogwarts?" A ghost of a smile flittered across Jugson's face, partially restrained by the invisible force.

"He's dead." Harry stared.

"Oh."

* * *

"Milord," the figure said, bowing deeply.

"Bellatrix," came the hiss from the figure sitting on the raised platform. She stood up with a flourish, making sure to keep her eyes to the floor. Bellatrix waited patiently for the Dark Lord to talk. She was a new recruit, but she, unlike many others, knew how to go about the Dark Lord. Actually knowing the Dark Lord? No, that was mere foolishness. There was simply no such thing. She prided herself in being one of the few who knew this. She had met Rodolphus Lestrange at The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. She had been talking with Regulus when she had made the acquaintance, and a rather pleasant one it had been. To put it simply, by the end of the night, he had had her position among the Death Eaters secured. And she could not thank him more. In the weeks that followed, he had helped her gain her footing in the circle of Her Lord. And it was through this that she had found his partnership something she wanted to keep.

"Have you been in contact with Rodolphus yet?"

"Yes Milord."

"What happened?" he asked, the command oozing from his voice. Bellatrix suppressed a shiver.

"He was successful in his attempt to transport the object into the Vault. The goblins who were involved were immediately disposed of-"

"FOOL," he screamed, his voice radiating fury. Before she knew what was happening she was struck down by what felt like a thousand white-hot knives, piercing her skin with bittersweet fury. She writhed in terror as she screamed louder than ever, feeling as though her body was going to implode. And then it was gone and she was left lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Rise you fool!" Bellatrix scrambled onto her feet and bowed before him.

"Yes Master!" she gasped, her breathing heavy.

"Did I not clearly say that the goblins were not to die? Now the old fool will know. He is not as stupid as I wished he was and that means we must proceed with caution!" he raged and Bellatrix was happy she was not looking into _those_ eyes. She felt, rather than heard him lean back in his chair. He started talking again, his tone dangerously soft. "Bella, Bella, Bella, you are only new. I had hoped you would not disappoint me, yet here you are and you have neglected to listen. I am disappointed." She was instantly on the floor, in a deep bow.

"Master! Forgive me! Master, forgive me. I will do better next time. Forgive me-"

"Enough!" Bellatrix swiftly rose in almost robotic movements, as though his words were instructions deeply embedded in her head. In a way, they were.

"Was his presence noted?"

"No Milord. Your plan was successful as always. The Aurors of Diagon Alley had been summoned to Hogsmeade by the Ministry and so Rodolphus found the journey quite agreeable."

"Excellent," he hissed. "Did he activate the charms I had set upon it?"

"Yes Master."

"Very well," he rasped. "What of the raid at Hogsmeade?"

"An overall success Milord. We managed to burn down nearly all the buildings and kill the filthy blooded rascals," she growled, images of the battle flashing through her head. She smiled grimly. And then she thought of the boy. The smile slid off her face. The pest. How had he known her name? No one, except Rodolphus and the Dark Lord knew of her joining the ranks of the Death Eaters. She contemplated telling the Dark Lord but quickly dismissed the idea. However, luck wasn't on her side.

"Bella," hissed the sly voice. "You are keeping something from me, are you not?" Bellatrix blanched.

"Nothing of importance Milord," she said and instantly regretted it. For the second time that night, she fell to the ground in a jumble of screams, agony and terror. It was over before she knew it and she scrambled onto her legs, ignoring the protests of her abused bones.

"The Dark Lord knows everything Bella, don't ever lie to him. Now, you are keeping something from me. Do tell," he hissed, his tone sending chills down her spine.

"Yes Master. Forgive me Master-"

"I have not all the time in the world!"

"Yes Master," she gasped and she cringed at the wobble in her voice. She would have to work with that. "It was during the raid. The old fool Dumbledore must have sent the Professors to help with the situation. I was accosted by one of them. He was a good fighter. But this was not what confused me; I have seen many great fighters. The boy recognized me through my voice and seemed to almost _know_ I was a Death Eater. I find that quite impossible, seeing as I was just recently initiated and the only people aware are yourself and Rodolphus. But that is not at all, he hinted that he had met with me, that he, in fact, had battled me. I remember no such thing ever happening. I had feared that he may win in our duel but the Dementors had appeared and he had succumbed to their-" She paused and smiled-"_charm_."

"This may be a mere coincidence Bella. Did he say anything else of importance?"

"I do not recall exactly. Maybe it is best if I give Milord the memory." He paused.

"Very well," he spat. "Leave me the memory and I will observe it. Summon Rodolphus and return. Then we shall discuss the content of your memory."

"Yes Master," she said, while retrieving the white substance from her head and transferring it to the Ring he wore, commonly known as his Pensieve.

"You are dismissed."

"Yes Master," she said, bowing deeply before walking out of the room and apparating to the Malfoy Manor. She quickly walked up the hill, sparing glances behind her to see if anyone was following. She approached the main door and knocked once, common code for Death Eaters. The doors were quickly opened by a bowing House Elf.

"Greetings Master Bellatrix-"

"Move foul creature," she spat, pushing it aside. She strode through the hallways purposely, making her way to the Main Living Room. She pushed the doors open and saw Narcissa, Lucius and Rodolphus sitting down in silence. They all looked up at her.

"Bellatrix," said Narcissa warmly. "Come, have a seat-"

"Not now Cissy!" she hissed, her eyes blazing. She turned to Rodolphus. "The Dark Lord wishes to see you immediately and sent me to summon you. Come, he will grow impatient."

Rodolphus nodded and got up, not even sparing a glance to the Malfoy's. They both walked out of the house and apparated just beyond the hill. They knocked once at the door and waited for the order to enter. Bellatrix was quite shocked when she heard him scream in rage.

"ENTER." They spared each other a glance before walking in and bowing deeply, making sure to kiss the hem of his robes.

"Rodolphus, I will address you later," he snarled and Bella wondered if the memory had gotten him in this rotten mood. "Bella, is this all of the memory?"

"Yes Master."

"Then the old coot must know! How else would his budding little Professors know? This was not what was meant to happen! _Crucio!_"

Bella fell to the floor screaming and she felt tears of shame and pain burn in her eyes. When she was released, she blinked the tears away and quickly stood up.

"My apologies Master!"

"Bella you have failed me. Again, you have disappointed me. I want the building under constant surveillance, do you understand? I want to know everyone and everything that enters that building, do you understand!"

"Yes Master," she quickly said with a bow.

"I want you to get in contact with someone at Hogwarts! I hear you have a cousin currently attending. Find out who that boy is! Do you understand? I want to know everything about him, down to the smallest detail. I want to know whom he associates with, how he came to be a professor and when he became a professor! If he wears red socks, I expect to know it! Is that clear?"

"Yes Master!"

"Very well, leave! I want to have a little chat with Rodolphus."

"Yes Master." She bowed and quickly walked out, not wanting to be punished anymore. She felt for Rodolphus. He would pay for his idiocy.

She was right. As she walked down the hallway, she heard his agonized screams reverberate through the building.

**Yay! I think that was quite a fast update and I know i always say this-but this time its true!-expect a LONG wait for the next chapter! This chapter to me was very easy to write, I just hope I got Voldemort right! (he is very hard, try writing him). Sometimes i would write things like 'Moron' and then i'd think, "Does Voldie really say stuff like that?" and then i'd be like "No, just my brother does!". Anywaii plz review I really wanna get over 70 reviews but very little ppl seem to be reviewing! And u dunno how nice it is to read a long review! Nywaii i'll shut up now! I hope u enjoyed it!**


	9. Time Within Time

A Twist In Time

**THANKS:**Lexie Green, Marauder-Feathers, Nightwing 509, leela06, PSTurner, lemonwedges4, vigi.limi- **FOR REVIEWING CHAPTER 8.**

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Harry Potter. Although sometimes I like to imagine what it would be like.

Chapter 9: Time within Time

"No Potter!"

"But it's such a good idea-"

"No Potter!"

"But we'll all have such good fun-"

"No Potter!"

"But-"

"NO POTTER!"

And silence.

"Fine," sighed James theatrically, "You're right, it was a stupid idea. Anyway I think I'll just go take a walk…" he continued in a light tone. He turned around and walked out of the portrait hole, just a tiny bit miffed with the love of his life. She had told him in every way possible that his ideas regarding Halloween were not welcome. Even though he was Head Boy just as much as she was Head Girl. Too bad the Potter's were so stubborn; it would take more than one red head to stop him. She couldn't stand in his way. Well, she could, but not this time. This was their final year at Hogwarts and he planned to make it the best. And that's why he was headed to Headmaster this instant. So what if Evans didn't want to participate? It just meant he had more work to do. Nothing that bothered him at all. Well, it didn't bother him _that_much. He sighed. The only thing that was bothering him was Evans. Okay, so she hated him! Did that mean she had to hate, reject and mock every single one of his ideas? _Yes_, cried a nasty voice at the back of his head.

"Sod off," he said out loud, wishing the stupid voice would take the hint and die.

"Excuse me?"

James quickly looked up and nearly slapped himself. He had been so absorbed in his conversation with…himself that he hadn't noticed Professor McGonagall striding towards him.

"Oh Professor! No-err-I didn't mean you-I-err-"

"Yes Potter," she grumbled, her voice laced with humor. "Where are you headed?"

"Professor Dumbledore's office," he said and seeing that she still looked slightly suspicious added, "Head business." She nodded.

"Where is Miss Evans?"

"Being angry at me in the Common Room," he said bitterly and was shocked to see her smiling. He mentally sighed. Teachers. Weird people. He smiled at McGonagall and continued walking, thinking about things like Quidditch, homework and the mystery called Evans.

"Lemon Drop," he said, finally coming out of his daze. He stumbled up the rounded staircase and entered the office. And there was good ol' Dumbledore, sitting there, staring at him with those twinkling eyes, seeming to already know why he was there.

"Err…hi Sir," he started, feeling stupid saying something that sounded so awkward.

"Hello Mr Potter. Please, come, have a seat. I'm sure there's much to talk about!"

James nodded and walked forward, taking a seat in the cushiony chair that had seemingly popped into existence a few seconds ago. He took a good, long look around the office, smiling happily. Oh the memories, be they bad or good. He was cut out of his musings by Dumbledore who had started talking.

"-brings you here today Mr Potter?"

"Well sir," he started confidently, ready to give Dumbledore a whiff of the 'Good Boy Jamesie' as Sirius liked to say. "Halloween's coming up in around a week and Evans and I have already planned the feast and all the decorations and stuff like that. But I was wondering if I could have permission to maybe do a little something more this year, seeing as it is our last year…I really thought this year should stand out!"

"Naturally, Mr Potter," said Dumbledore happily. "What is it you have in mind?"

"I remember when I was young my parents done this thing for Halloween where they invited all my childhood friends and we all dressed up as our favourite witch or wizard. I remember I dressed up as Merlin," laughed James, completely forgetting that he was talking to his Headmaster. "I had made it so my Hat was really long, longer than me at the time. I was walking to get a drink and the hat got stuck in the chandelier and because the hat was attached to my robes it had pulled them all off and everyone had seen me naked…" James trailed off as he finally realized who he was talking to. He looked closely at Dumbledore and saw that he was chuckling lightly. James blushed.

"Sorry Sir, got a bit carried away…"

"No my dear boy, it is no crime. Continue."

"Yes, right. So, I was just thinking that we have a party after the feast in our common rooms, so that all years can attend. We would all be dressed up in our costumes and basically it'd just be…enjoyable…" James stopped talking when he realized that Evan's was right. His idea was totally stupid! How had he thought it could be fun? Well, too late to back out.

"I think it is a brilliant idea! I will tell all heads of houses, and they will arrange for the parties to be set up. I'm sure you and Miss Evans will control Gryffindor?"

"Err…yup!" he said, feeling a plan formulating in his head. He grinned evilly. And then he stopped. The other houses would laugh at the mere stupidity of this 'party'. Hell, if he wasn't the one planning it, he was sure he would be sitting with Sirius in the common room laughing at the dumb thing he called 'enjoyable'.

"Very well!" he said, taking out his wand and waving it. A stack of papers appeared on the table. "I'm sure you can get these around so everyone is notified. They will go up on the notice board's, you need not bother yourself with that."

"Thanks Professor!" He grabbed the stack of papers and hurried back to the common room. He didn't care if the idea was total idiocy. He stumbled through the portrait hole and watched in amazement as people were already crowding around the notice boards. Dumbledore was good.

"POTTER!"

James whirled around and came face to face with an angry red head.

"I said NO! WHO gave you authorisation to make these pamphlets? You're in for it NOW! Wait till I tell DUMBLEDORE!" James smiled at her.

"Tell him. He authorised it. Oh and by the way, be a good Head Girl and give me a hand," he said, dropping a stack of pamphlets in her hands before quickly hurrying away.

He smiled grimly at her shout of frustration. Right now it didn't register that he was angering the love of his life. All he could think of was that he was one up on Evans. What Evans didn't know was that as Head Girl she would have to help him prepare, and that meant Hogsmeade, shopping, and…them…together.

And Evans. All to himself.

* * *

"This is going to be great!" exclaimed an excited Ron to a laughing Harry. "I never knew how fun it was to watch students tumble around like total dunderheads – I mean, imagine what we must've looked like!"

"I hear you," laughed Harry, trying to contain his laughter in the packed Hall, "but don't you let Hermione hear you saying that. She'd probably throw you out of the whole 'watch and learn' program."

"Oh C'mon, we all know why Hermione started the-"

"Started what?" asked an out-of-breath Hermione who had run up all the way to lunch.

"Err…"

Harry threw Ron an amused glance before turning to Hermione.

"Actually," he said, flashing Ron a wink, "We were discussing the real reason you had started the 'watch and learn' program and Ron was about to tell me what he thought on the topic."

Hermione eyed him over her pie suspiciously.

"What do you mean by the _real_ reason? Ron? Care to explain?" Ron threw Harry a disgruntled look before turning to Hermione and smiling weakly.

"Yeah…well…I meant…" He sighed before rolling his eyes. "Come _on_ Hermione! We all know you made it because you're just a little afraid of what Luna might be teaching!"

Hermione looked shocked and a bit angry. Maybe because the real reason she had started the program had been so carelessly thrown at her face, or because Ron had totally missed the point. He had a feeling it was the former. She stuttered inarticulately for a few moments before getting up with a "To the Library then" and stomping out of the hall. Ron's face resembled a mixture of shock and resentment before melting into a cast of grumpiness.

"She's not going to get over that one for days," he muttered, spooning his mash potato. Harry rolled his eyes and gave Ron a quick pat on the back.

"Don't worry," Harry laughed. "Go give her a good snog and she'll be well and truly over it by tomorrow morning," he grunted, shoving a bit of pie into his mouth. He turned to Ron who was looking at him in absolute shock. Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Haven't got that far yet? Right…well, I'll be going then. Cheerio," he said before practically bolting out of the hall and down to their rooms. Hopefully Ron would get over the shock of his statement and actually follow the advice. Harry forcefully shoved a stack of parchment across his desk, not bothering to take a look at them. Today's lesson would be practical and plus, Hermione wouldn't be present. He could let his guard down a little.

He jumped as the bell rang and the door opened, letting in a few of the more dedicated students. Once everyone had come in, Harry waved his wand closing the door with a bang and instantly quieting the chattering students. He smirked. Hermione had taught him that one and how thankful he was. He opened his mouth to greet the students but was stopped when the door banged open and a disheveled looking Ron came in. He glowered at Harry and closed the door loudly. Harry threw him a puzzled look before turning to the students.

"Ok, so after being out for a week, I thought it was around time I tested your defense skills," he started. He smiled when a blonde haired Gryffindor groaned and mouthed 'GREAT' to his friend. "And it'll be practical. I have no interest in theory at the moment. I'm sure you can all memorise a book. It's just not the same." He was about to go on talking but at that moment Remus banged through the door looking ruffled and out of breath.

"S-o-rry P-Professor," he puffed out. "I was with Professor Granger in the library. Here, she gave me a note." Harry reached out and took the note. It read:

_Harry,_

_Excuse Remus, we were talking. I wouldn't have kept him but I really didn't feel the time pass. Sorry!_

_Love_

_Hermione_

Harry put away the letter and nodded to Remus.

"Better get seated then!" Harry walked Remus to his chair at the back and on the way whispered to Ron "You must of snogged her well. She's in a good mood!" Harry had hoped no one would hear but apparently someone had because he heard a choke from behind him. He smiled slightly before returning to the front of the classroom.

"Mr Lupin, you're lucky we haven't started yet. Having said that, why don't we get started!" He muttered a spell, pointed his wand at the desks and chairs and watched with amusement as everyone fell to the floor as the furniture vanished. He smirked yet again. He had to thank Dumbledore for that one. When they had all gotten up, he started talking.

"Ok guys, I'll key you in on something. When I was around 15, I, with the help of Professor Rivera and Granger, started an illegal club called the DA. We met up all over our school and practiced our hearts out in defense. I'll let you in on something. As the teacher, I was totally shocked to see how poor some people are in the very basics of defense. I sure as hell hope this isn't the same case. We were 15. You're 17. Do the math…err…Arithmancy or whatever. So basically I'll go over whatever I think you should know. Any questions?" He looked around and saw that a Slytherin had his hand up.

"Yes…?"

"Allen Cliff."

"Mr Cliff?"

"You said it was illegal. Did you get caught?" he asked with a smirk. Harry turned to Ron who was looking at the floor and scratching his head. He turned back to Cliff.

"Yes we got caught," he said slowly and then shivered. "The consequences were…major."

"Dreadful," grunted Ron.

"Terrible."

"Bloody horrible." Harry nodded.

"So I think you get the point. Any other questions?" Harry looked around and saw that Snape's hand was up. He nodded his head at him.

"Yes Mr Snape?"

"What does the DA stand for?" Harry blinked at him before turning to Ron.

"Err…the Defense Association," he said, smiling weakly. "Ok, enough questions. Time to get started. Pair up. This is how it's going to work. I am going to perform a series of spells on random people and their partner has to identify the spell and perform the counter curse or the cursed will remain that way for the rest of the lessons. Keep in mind this is only for offensive spells. When it comes to the defensive, it will be the other way around. You will get to perform spells on me, and I will deflect them using shields or any other thing I can think of. You will have to identify and perform them. Got it?" The students nodded their heads and Harry could tell some were a bit nervous.

"Ron, come here a minute." Ron walked up to him and Harry leaned in a bit. "Ron," he whispered. "I want you to make the biggest distraction you can, preferably something with a lot of smoke and lights to blind them and get them unnerved. Make sure it's safe." Ron nodded.

"Sure Harry," he said loudly. "I guess I'll be going then." He turned around and started walking to the door calmly. When he was around two meters away a violent motion and a shout of "_BOMBARDA_" let Harry know that the door would soon be in splinters. He didn't wait to watch as the door was blown into bits. He ran forward and threw a couple of stunners, a Petrificus Totalus or two, maybe a bit of Levicorpus, a couple of leg lockers and he even tried a bat bogey although his wasn't anywhere near Ginny's. He was about to continue hexing the students when he saw something small and purplish-blue whiz past him with an evil cackle. With a large grin Harry realised Ron must've taken a leaf out of Lockhart's book and summoned some pixies.

Knowing enough was done, Harry ran back to the front class, slapping a pixy out of his way. He erected a shield, just to make sure he was safe, and watched the class drown in mayhem. He turned to Ron who was standing behind a shield laughing so hard he was crying. The few students that weren't hexed were running around, trying to get away from the pixies while some were trying to revive their partners. A person who's partner was held up by Levicorpus was trying to tug him down. He was happy to see that some were actually immobilising the pixies before attending to their partners. Harry laughed when he saw Sirius immobilise a pixy and shove it into the stunned Pettigrew's mouth.

When Harry felt they had suffered enough he got rid of his shield and signaled to Ron to start immobilising the pixies. Once most of the pixies were tied up, the students lay on the ground, either cursed by him or bedraggled by the pixies.

"Ok that was done quite badly. I am happy to see that some of you have managed to perform the counter curse on your partners. Fair enough. There is always a second try!"

"WHAT?" shouted James. "Pixies! And more! Last I heard Death Eater's never used pixies! Chuck in a couple of Dementors, fair enough, but pixies! We couldn't see, let alone undo our partners."

"As I discussed last lesson Mr Potter, you must be prepared for everything! Use your wand, your defense. Look closely, you will find that some of your fellow students had immobilised the pixies and then moved on to their partners. Miss Evans for example, although the pixies took quite a bit out of her. Mr Black, Mr Lupin, Mr Cliff, Miss Stiles. They all managed quite well. I think it's best we revive the lost."

For the rest of the lesson Harry walked around the classroom and watched as students revived their partners. Most performed quite well seeing as the pixies were long gone. The class knew their basics and Harry was happy for it. It meant he could move onto the Unforgivables. He had been harboring the thought of asking Dumbledore about squeezing Legilimency and Occlumency into the curriculum. Not actually learning it, that would take far too long. No, but it was inevitable the students would come to face Legilimency, they needed to know how it worked and if possible, how to stop it. He would see to it that the two topics were put into the curriculum.

* * *

Hermione stalked into the library, fuming at the nerve of Ron. She stormed up to the nearest shelf and grabbed a book off the shelf, not really caring what it was. She slammed it down on the nearest table before angrily taking a seat. She glared at the book, not even bothering to open it. How dare he accuse her of such a thing? So Luna's teaching methods were a bit odd, and yes she had expected them to be so, but that did not mean she had started the program for that reason. 

She glared at the book, daring it to challenge her. When it didn't, she sighed bitterly. Who was she kidding? Of course she had made the program for that reason. She knew well enough the rest of them could hold a class well. And here she was, fuming at Ron for telling the truth. _What a prat you are!_ laughed a snide voice at the back of her head. Instead of angering her like it normally would, it made her smile. Soon, she was all out grinning. She could be so stupid sometimes. She was stuck 20 years in the past and here she was fretting over a stupid program. She should have been panicking about the fact that they had been here only three weeks and they were already changing time. That and the fact she hadn't done any research on how they got here, or how to get them back.

Hermione sighed, her grin vanishing. She tiredly got up and prepared herself to get researching. She was looking for one book in particular. _Time and Time again: A Mystery_. She would ask Madame Pince to find it for her, but she had a feeling she would be less than cooperative. Nevertheless, she had to try. She walked up to Madame Pince who was leafing through several pamphlets hurriedly. As Hermione approached her, she looked up and narrowed her eyes. Hermione offered a weak smile. Things were definitely better when you were on good terms with the librarian.

"Hello Madame Pince," she greeted warmly, trying her best to sound like she was happy to be talking to the librarian. "I was looking for a book, 'Time and Time again: A Mystery', I think that's what it was called. Do you happen to know where it is?"

"No, I'm sorry, that particular book is no longer a part of this library," she answered briskly, turning away and replacing the pamphlets onto the shelves.

"What do you mean 'is no longer'?" Hermione asked, forgetting to be polite.

"It was borrowed by a 'Harriet Lord' three weeks ago and was never returned," answered the librarian, nostrils flaring. "That little runt of a girl, a third year or something, never saw her again. And a good thing too. That was a most precious text she lost!"

Hermione looked down at her hands. She didn't understand! She had seen the text a mere two weeks ago. And now the librarian was telling her that it had gone missing three weeks ago. Who was this Harriet Lord anyway, she'd never met one. This was too much of a coincidence. That aside…

"Well it's only a week overdue, I'm sure you could track down the girl…?"

"Miss Granger, I have already tried. I'll have you know I care a great deal for my books. I tried looking for her, but apparently she does not exist. Must've put herself under glamour, the sneak. Stealing my books. I asked Albus if we could launch a search, but he merely put it aside, saying that it would eventually turn up."

"Thank you," Hermione said faintly before turning around and walking towards one of the shelves. She would find that book if it killed her. When she had found it, something had drawn her to it. She felt it was somehow connected to getting them back to the future. However, the mystery was too much for her to ponder right now. She would think on it later. Right now, she needed to retrace her steps and find all the books she had already found. The thought dropped into her stomach like a brick. _Great._

Sighing, she straightened her shoulders and charged to the nearest shelf. She trailed along the shelves, completely oblivious to the world around her. Hours passed her by and all she could see were books. Books, books, books…

Three hours into the game, she became faint and decided it was time to have a rest. Lunch had long past and so she would have to run down to the kitchens. She took out her wand. She had learned her lesson.

"_Locomotor Books!_" She watched as the books rose and followed her as she proceeded out of the library. She checked her watch and groaned when she realised it was seven. She still had marking to do, she needed to have lunch/dinner or she would faint from exhaustion and of course she needed to sit down and think about the stupid book.

As she reached their rooms she was about to say the password when she heard the pattering of feet down the hallway. She looked down the hallway and saw Remus coming towards her, or more correctly, towards the kitchens with his head down. She quickly stepped away from the wall she had been about to enter. She would absolutely not let the Marauders find out where they slept. He had heard her hurried steps and looked up. He froze and stared at her.

"Hello Mr Lupin."

"H-hello again Professor."

"Fancy seeing you here," she said with a raised eyebrow. Why is it that Remus always popped up when she was loaded with books?

"Umm, yeah," he said weakly. "Same with you, Professor." Hermione looked genuinely confused.

"Why is that?"

"I thought I just saw you talking to the Arithmancy teacher outside of the Great Hall," he said, his face scrunched up in thought.

"It must have been someone else, I was in the library," she said, pointing at her books. She grinned. "Not going to knock them over, are you Mr Lupin?" He laughed.

"I'll try my best not to, but sometimes these things just happen. James says it's magnetic attraction." Hermione looked straight at him, a bit put off. Attraction, did he say? Remus seemed to understand what she had been thinking for he started blushing.

"Magnetic attraction to the um- books, you know?" he said, voice weak. Hermione smiled at him, relief washing over her.

"Anyway, I've got to get going, so…um…bye Professor."

"Bye!"

Hermione waited until he had completely disappeared before facing the wall and staring at it hard. The crack opened and with an airy "Time" to the five lady's, she was in their rooms. She laid the books down on the nearest table and turned to the other five who were all sprawled over the couches talking.

"Hey guys," she said, plopping herself down on a chair. "What're we talking about?"

"Harry's Defense lesson," said Ron, biting into his apple.

"Apparently it was a great laugh," said Ginny, twirling her finger around a lock of red hair. Harry snorted.

"Great laugh? They were falling over like dead sheep. They definitely need more practice. Sure, their material is great up to their sixth year but that Witchett must have been terrible. They're totally lost when it comes to sixth year material."

"Lucky you're there Harry," said Neville, who had been reading a book, most likely related to Herbology. "Whip them up into shape like you did us."

"I did not-"

"Yes you did," they all replied. Harry looked at them and grinned.

"Fair enough." He turned to Hermione.

"So Hermione, where've you been?"

"Library, trying to find all those books that got knocked down."

"Did you find them?" asked Luna, eyes on her Quibbler.

"All, but one." Ron looked at her with eyes narrowed.

"Come on Hermione, you are Hermione aren't you? You can find anything in the library!" The others murmured their agreement. Hermione laughed a little.

"Yeah, well this book's a little different," she said tiredly. She sat back. "I saw it around half a week into our visit, so around two weeks ago, right? Well, I came back today and didn't want to have to look for it everywhere, so I asked Madame Pince." Ron sniggered and Hermione stopped to throw him a glare.

"You try looking for it Ron!" she said, feeling a bit peeved. "Anway, she told me that about three weeks ago a girl called Harriet Lord borrowed the book and never returned it. Funny thing is, I saw the book!"

"Are you sure? Maybe you saw something else?"

"No!"

"Well, it can't have anything to do with our coming here, can it? I mean, we arrived three weeks ago, start of term."

"Well you haven't heard the end of it!" said a frustrated Hermione. "The third year Harriet Lord doesn't exist. She told me that when she had tried to find the girl, no such girl had existed. Ginny, are there any Harriet Lord's in your grade?" Ginny scrunched her face up in thought for a minute.

"No, not in any of the houses." Hermione sighed.

"See what I mean! Something's off." She looked up and was happy to see that everybody else could see the importance of the case. They had all abandoned what they were doing and were now thinking hard. Luna looked up at Hermione.

"Why are you so intent on getting the book? Is there something about it?"

"I don't know how to explain it, but I just feel like it's important, like it's a missing piece of the puzzle, our puzzle! I know it's just a feeling but…"

"Don't worry Hermione," laughed Harry. "We know you're feelings are never just feelings."

"Listen Hermione, you say you saw it, right?" Hermione nodded her head. "Well then forget this Harriet Lord business, it means whoever it was returned the book, but in the wrong section and obviously without informing Pince. That means it must be somewhere in the library. I'm sure you can find it," said Neville, surprisingly, seeing as he was never the practical one.

"I guess so," said Hermione, thinking back. "But when I got all these other books, I went through at least half the library, and at least twice in the spot I remember it being, and I didn't see it. Something's off."

"We can all see that," grumbled Ron. Harry leaned forward.

"Putting aside all this Harriet business, aren't there any other ways of getting this book?"

"Harry, I've just told you, it's completely missing!"

"But-" started Ginny, a queer look coming over her. "But what if we got to it before it went missing? Before this Harriet got to it." Neville laughed.

"What are you suggesting? Time travel?" he laughed. Luna leaned forward.

"Wel…we've managed it once before…what's stopping us now?"

**Ok, yes I am terribly sorry for the wait. I finished my school certificate and got a scholarship (isnt that so cool!). Then I was whisked off to a holiday by my cousins, at which point I returned and realised I have heaps of holiday homework and an exam on the first day back at school. Also looking for a job, so that's taking time. Some major are things are happening and I will try to get as many chapters in before the time comes when I barely have thought for the computer. Review, tell me if you like where the story is going. Some things might be a bit off, but everything except spelling mistakes are meant to be like that. I also think i'm going to get a beta...if anyone feels up to it...!**


	10. Resounding Confusion

A Twist In Time

**THANKS TO: **ChristinaAngel, athemina, nightstarz, mangagirl18, Nosi, dinawen, Ellyanah, HaruJam, Fiona-Potter, lemonwedges4, Xx Tohru xXx Seraphina xX **- FOR REVIWEING CHAPTER 9!**

A special **THANKYOU **to** Nosi**, who offered to **beta** my story and has worked her magic on this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter. J.K.Rowling does!

Chapter 10: Resounding Confusion

Hermione lay deep in thought, trying to tie her head around the intricacies of time. Sure she had time travelled before, but this was just out of her hands. The complications of travelling back in time were numerous as it was, but travelling back in time whilst _already back in time _was preposterous! How ever would they manage it? With so many students running around, and Hermione a professor, it would be impossible to stay inconspicuous.

But Hermione was getting ahead of herself.

There was still the issue of how they would actually be getting back. The chances of jumping into the Room Of Requirement and landing three weeks back in time were little to none. They needed a device, a time turner, something that could pull them back three weeks. But that was exactly the problem. Hermione had never heard of a time turner that went back weeks. She'd read theory, much of it, but she'd never heard of one actually existing. Not in 1997 and most certainly not in 1977. Oh how it all infuriated her. But mostly it infuriated her that they were doing all this for a _book._ A book…a book that in no certain way guaranteed them a happy return to their time. It was all so very much out of her hands that it annoyed her.

"Hermione!"

She jumped and looked around to see Ginny staring at her with concern.

"I was saying that maybe you should eat something, you look haggard."

"I think I'll pass, Ginny," sighed Hermione, turning to look up at the ceiling. Her plate lay in front of her, untouched. How could she eat? What with all that was happening and would be happening. They were going to Dumbledore after breakfast and Hermione hadn't been able to sleep all night. She was so consumed by her thoughts she nearly fell off her chair when the Owl Post came. Trying to calm herself and look as professional as possible, she looked around and nearly yelped in surprise when she saw a large black owl circling the Slytherin table. The owl seemed ancient, flying with slow, strained movements towards its owner.

"Harry," she called, her eyes on the boy with the black bird. Harry, who was quietly discussing something with Ron slowly turned around, his words dying on his lips. Hermione turned to see both his and Ron's eyes on her. "See that boy there," she whispered, subtly nodding her head to the boy with the black bird, "who is he?"

Harry looked closely at the boy before turning to Hermione.

"Well, I wouldn't know seeing as I don't teach him," said Harry with a light chuckle. "Why, what's-"

"Actually," said Ron and both Harry and Hermione's eyes flew to him, "He's a sixth year. I teach him. I was going to tell you before, but I must've forgotten with everything going on. Guess who he is?" Hermione and Harry looked back to the boy.

"Dunno, but he looks familiar. Do we know him in the future?" asked Harry, turning back to Ron, Hermione following his lead.

"No, actually, he's Regulus Black, Sirius' younger brother. The one we heard _all_ about," said Ron, smiling at their expressions of shock.

"I had completely forgotten about him!" squealed Hermione.

"So had I," agreed Harry fervently.

"Gave me the shock of my life when I asked for his name," laughed Ron. His grin vanished. "'Course it didn't take long for me to get over the fact that he was the _other_ Black and realise what he is, or what he would become." Harry and Hermione's faces darkened.

"I wonder when he becomes a Death Eater," asked Hermione, leaning back in her seat and watching said boy walking out of the Great Hall with the bird.

"And when he chickens out," added Harry. The others nodded. Hermione checked her watch and let out a sigh. As interesting as this was, they had more pressing matters at hand.

"We better get going," said Hermione to all five of them, getting up. "Don't want to be late; we have a lot to discuss." They all nodded and slowly got up.

The walk to Dumbledore's office was a quiet one, with the occasional comment on the weather and late students. As they ascended the stairs, Hermione thought she heard Dumbledore's voice along with another. Harry, who was ahead of her, threw her a questioning glance before knocking. The voices came to an abrupt halt then:

"Enter."

Harry stepped through first, followed by the others. Hermione was surprised to see a sulky looking Lily Evans sitting in front of Dumbledore, her hands folded in her lap. When they entered, she turned and gave them a look full of surprise before smiling weakly at them.

"Ah, I see. I'll be right with you Professors, I was just finishing up with Miss Evans as it is," said Dumbledore, looking at Lily, who had gone back to sitting dejectedly in her chair. "So Miss Evans, suffice to say I find Mr Potter's plans quite brilliant. Halloween spirit, Miss Evans, Halloween spirit. Now why don't you run along, here's a letter excusing you for any lateness this meeting may have caused."

"Thank you Professor," said Lily, a weak smile in place. She stood up, nodded to the other Professors and walked out. As soon as the door was completely shut, Dumbledore motioned for them to take their seats. Once they were all seated comfortably, they turned to Dumbledore who was waiting for them to organise themselves.

"Now that we're settled, I have some news." They all turned to each other, eyebrows raised.

"Today, the trial of Mark Jugson was concluded and the Minister announced in great delight that Mr Jugson was sentenced to life in Azkaban," said Dumbledore, no smile present on his face. Harry sighed and looked down at his lap while Hermione perked up, a curious look on her face.

"Life? How is that?"

"Well it seems Mr Jugson could've gotten away with a few less years but all chance of that disappeared when they checked his wand. It was discovered that he had used the Cruciatus curse three times and the Killing curse twice. Enough to warrant the life sentence," said Dumbledore before sighing sadly. "It is sad to know that one of your students wastes his life away like that. Mr Jugson was no genius, but he could've lived nicely, had he not ruined it all."

"Well Death Eaters don't want to live nicely," said Ginny, her face twisted in disgust. "They want power, and they want it for themselves only."

"Never mind that," said Harry tiredly, massaging his temples. "Remember Professor, when you and Luna told me about changing the timeline? Well this is a good example of it, isn't it? Jugson isn't meant to be in Azkaban. And here we are, chucking him in a lifetime before he's meant to go in." Ron perked up at this.

"Yeah, I know what you're saying Harry, but have you thought that…haven't you thought that this is maybe better for us? You know, if he was in jail…then he wouldn't be able to attack at Bill and Fleur's wedding and…" he trailed off, looking hopefully around.

"I agree," said Neville in a small voice from the corner of the room. He looked around timidly. "A lot of people could be saved…we could make a world of difference…Harry, your parents…my parents…"

"NO. Stop," broke in Hermione, her face a mask of pain. "As enticing as that may seem Ron, Neville, we absolutely cannot do that! Don't you see what other implications this could bring around? Harry, I can tell you're being swayed but you were with me when we went to rescue…your godfather in our third year! You know what could happen, what would happen! Changes, and not necessarily good changes! You've taken risks before all of you, but this is not one I'm going to let you take. I'm sorry, I know it hurts, but we just can't…take that risk."

"Miss Granger is correct. I cannot allow you to take these risks," said Dumbledore, suddenly saddened. "I too, am sorry, for the future seems to be anything but happy." Ginny sighed tiredly. She moved forward on her little chair and looked at everyone hard.

"What's done is done and nothing can be changed. Don't you lot go doubting that. We're not here to debate this, we're here for something different. There is a book, and Hermione thinks it could get us back. I know we're not going back to heaven, but we're going back to where we belong. Belonging. I know we all need it. So why don't we set our sights a tiny bit lower, and try to find that again. Our belonging."

"Ginny's right guys," said Harry, leaning forward a little. "Get your brains back in place; we have other problems to solve."

Hermione looked at Ginny and smiled a little. She loved how strong Ginny was, in times when even her resolve was wavering. Ginny fought for the right, not for herself. Hermione shot her a grateful glance before turning to Dumbledore, her feet in place.

"Well Professor Dumbledore, we came here to…throw some ideas around," said Hermione, a little lost as to how she should start off.

"That's one way of putting it, I guess," laughed Harry. The others chuckled a bit and Hermione allowed herself a weak smile.

"I may come off as a little silly and far-fetched during my explanation, but I do think that there is a solution to my problem and maybe you are the key to that solution. It started around two weeks back, maybe a day or two after we arrived. I was in the library trying to find any books that might've been of some help to our case, that is, getting us back to the future. I came across a book that I think…I feel is very important in our search for a way back to the future." Hermione paused, trying to articulate the insanity they were experiencing.

"May I request Miss Granger, that I see this document?"

"Well Professor that is the problem. The day I had seen the book I was involved in a minor accident, and I lost all of the books I had found. When I tried retracing it yesterday, Madame Pince informed me that a 'Harriet Lord' had borrowed the book three weeks ago. The thing is, if the girl had borrowed it three weeks ago, why did I spot it on one of the shelves two weeks ago? Not to mention that there is no 'Harriet Lord' currently attending Hogwarts. We found it all a bit of a…mystery."

Dumbledore stared at her for a moment before sitting back in his chair. He sat there in contemplation for a while and no one dared interrupt him. Hermione could see that this would only be adding to his problems, and she felt no need to be the one to rush him. Slowly, Dumbledore leant forward and placed his arms on his desk.

"It seems Miss Granger that you have stepped upon a second case of time," he said, a slight frown marring his face. The others looked up at him in surprise. Ron leaned forward excitedly.

"That's exactly what we thought! It seemed something like a case of time travel- Luna and Hermione were discussing it yesterday. We were thinking this Lord character was obviously some guy who showed Hermione the book _on purpose!_ He must've known Hermione would be the one who'd go to the end of Earth, or time, to get it. And so Hermione somehow needs to go back and get the book before this person 'borrows' it. The only problem is…we're not quite sure how Hermione's meant to go back."

"Your theory comes close but essentially it is wrong," said Dumbledore, a little smile on his face.

"What?" they cried in unison. Harry stood up.

"What do you mean? I don't understand Professor!" he said, his frustration evident.

"What I mean Mr Potter, is that you and your friends have failed to look at this from all perspectives. You all naturally assumed that this Harriet Lord was someone whom, like you, was after this book, someone who was laying out a trail for you to follow. Harriet Lord is indeed laying out a trail, but you never considered the fact that Harriet Lord could be someone you know, someone in this room." They all stared at him, their eyes wide with comprehension.

"It's you isn't it?" cried Ron, his voice strangled. Dumbledore looked at Ron and let out a gust of merry laughter.

"No I was suggesting one of you six, more specifically Hermione. You were correct in saying that Harriet Lord chose Hermione for this. Suffice to say, Hermione knows herself best." He turned to Hermione who was avidly staring at a spot just above his head. She slowly turned to face him and began to nod her head.

"That would explain why _I_ saw the book and not anyone else. But, how do we know that- no offence Professor- that you aren't right and that this Harriet Lord turns out to be an entirely different person? I mean, if it was me, how did I get back to the past to start with? I thought that there were no current methods-" Hermione shakily stood up and stepped closer to Dumbledore, "-and if you're insinuating that there are, then that would mean that the rest of us could go back and that this whole thing is entirely meaningless and-"

"You are right Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, effectively quieting the hysterical Hermione. "There are no current methods, legal or illegal, though if someone looked long and hard, they might just find a way."

"Are you saying that we have to find the way?" asked Neville, hesitating a little.

"Please, Mr Longbottom, let me finish," said Dumbledore, smiling at Neville. A blush crept up Neville's cheeks and he gave a small smile of embarrassment.

"Sorry Sir."

"As I was saying, there may be a way, but I do not think that these methods are attainable, for us at this time."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry whose frustration was getting the better of him. "What are you suggesting? That we don't go back and get this book? But you just told us that it was Hermione! That means that she does go back and that we have to find a way to get her back!"

"No Mr Potter, you are wrong. It seems you are all too used to doing things yourself. Sometimes, you have to give someone else a chance to do the hard work. When it is Miss Granger's time, nothing will stop her from going. All you have to do is wait for her time to come."

Hermione stared hard at Dumbledore before leaning back in her seat. Wait? Wait…for her time? Who could Dumbledore possibly think would come along and whisk her back a couple of weeks, of their own accord? It was bloody preposterous. Unless-

"Sir," asked Harry uncertainly, "Are you saying that Hermione just has to follow her daily routine, like normal, and be prepared for the possibility that she will be plunged into the past, at any unknown time?"

"Yes."

"But, by who?" asked Ginny, who for the last half an hour or so, had been trying to wrap her head around it all.

"That is something Miss Granger will be able to tell us when she comes back from her little journey." Hermione sat back and sighed. Things were getting far too complicated for her liking. How would she teach her lessons as normal when there was someone lurking around waiting to take her away?

"All this for a book," said Ron uncertainly. "I dunno Hermione, I know you're all for books and stuff, but I think this is just a little too much. We don't even know if it has anything of value in it!"

"I know Ron," said Hermione tiredly, rubbing her aching temples. "But it looks like we've just found out that I have no say in going back. Some mystery man is going to come and whisk me away, whether I like it or not."

"You are all looking at it the wrong way," said Luna, standing up and slowly walking around the room. "Hermione, with you back in the past, not only will you be getting this book, but you will have a chance to sit back and watch all these things over again. Think about it, you'll be going back to a week before we arrived. That's one week of extra research. You get to see our grand arrival; you can tell us if you notice anything that we didn't in our royal panic. There are a lot of things you can do the second time round. This is one chance full of opportunities. Why do you think people crave the idea of time travel? And to think we're getting it the easy way. We don't even have to lift a finger. Someone is doing all of it for us."

"Luna, you're exactly right," said Neville, rubbing his hands together. "But I think the thing that has got us all held up is-"

"-why this someone is doing it for us."

* * *

"Yeah look guys, I'll catch up with you later."

"WAIT, James!"

James ignored Sirius as he ran down the corridor after the ball of red hair that was currently weaving through the tangle of students making their way to lunch. He hoped she had calmed down after the stunt he'd pulled earlier. If he was lucky she would be in a good enough mood to not burn him to the ground when he told her about the Hogsmeade visit tomorrow.

"Evans!" he called and she turned back, coming to a slow stop. James wished he could say that she looked happy to see him.

"What is it Potter?" she asked tiredly, and James could see the bags under her eyes. "Please hurry, I have to run to the Gryffindor tower and then down to lunch."

"Oh-yeah-okay," said James a little nervously. "Umm…tomorrow's the Hogsmeade visit and-"

"No I won't do the honourable thing and go with you," she said turning away and walking down the hallway. James sighed and ran after her.

"No! Hold up Evans! I didn't mean on a date! Damn it, will you wait a while?" She stopped again and turned back to him.

"Then what did you mean?" she asked, lifting her eyebrow. James grinned.

"Head business," he said simply and he couldn't help the smile that was growing on his face. "Dumbledore approved my Halloween party suggestions. We're organising Gryffindor and so we need to grab the materials and stuff."

She stared at him suspiciously and James could feel a rejection coming on.

"Couldn't you just get them yourself? You're the one who went running off to Dumbledore to start with. And how do I know this isn't some trick you're cooking up to get me on a date?"

James felt a bubble swell up in his chest. She hadn't refused him! Yet, anyway.

"Well its head business so it means both of us have got to participate," said James, shrugging. "It's not a trick, I swear. It won't even take up the whole day. Just a bit of it, and then you can go back to your friends and stuff. I swear it's just for the Halloween party."

"Fine, Potter," she said, already turning away. "We'll leave after breakfast."

It took all of James' will-power not to jump up in the air and whoop with delight. She hadn't refused him! He frowned when he realised he'd told her they wouldn't spend the whole day together. He shrugged. Any time is better than no time. James turned on his heel and ran all the way down to the Great Hall. He walked in and sat down near Sirius and Peter.

"Guess what guys?" he said, barely able to contain his excitement.

"What?" asked Remus who was sitting across from him, eating at an unbearably slow pace.

"Lily agreed to go out with me!"

He looked around, expecting them to smile and pat him on the back in congratulations. What he didn't expect was for Sirius to snort in amusement as Peter and Remus shared _a look. _

"What? I'm not lying!"

"Of course you're not James. But-"

Remus cut him off, looking at James concernedly.

"-Are you sure you didn't…misunderstand the situation? Lily has hated you for an immeasurable amount of time, why would she go on a date with you now?"

"No! I asked her if she would go with me to Hogsmeade for head business and she clearly answered-"

"See!" said Sirius. "It's for head business! That's completely different to a date." James turned to Remus who nodded his head in agreement.

"Peter-what do you say?" Peter looked around like a trapped fly.

"Umm…well it's a date if you want it to be James," he said, throwing James a grin. James turned to the others. They were looking at him, shaking their heads.

"Oh fine, think what you want," said James, disappointment creeping in to his voice. He grabbed some nearby chicken and salad and started eating ravenously, his hunger only catching up with him now. "What are you guys doing at Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"Dunno," said Sirius, giving a little shrug. "What do you want to do Remus?"

"Yeah about that…I can't go Hogsmeade tomorrow," said Remus, staring at his food. "It's just you and Peter I think."

"What? Why?" asked Peter, looking for some nearby bread rolls.

"I have some…homework I need to catch up on. Anyway, I got to go get my stuff from the tower," he said, standing up and quickly walking out of the Great Hall. The three of them watched him leave the hall before turning back to their food.

"What's up with him?" asked James, his voice slightly muffled by the chicken.

"Dunno," shrugged Sirius. "Like he said, he has homework."

"Yeah but…Remus always finishes his work the moment he gets it."

They all glanced at the doors as though Remus was still walking out of them. James shrugged and as one they turned back to their food.

* * *

Harry walked into the Great Hall, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Behind him, Ron chuckled lightly and Hermione gave a small smile. Harry couldn't help but notice how her eyes flickered from one side of the room to the next and how her arm quivered at every sudden movement. They took their seats, Ron and Harry making sure Hermione was sitting between them. Harry quietly loaded his plate with food, watching the Hall fill up with students who had just returned from their visit to Hogsmeade.

"Where are the others?" asked Ron as he scooped some potato and dropped it on his plate.

"Well Neville and Luna are still in Hogsmeade," said Hermione, her voice low. "Ginny's up in her rooms, I think she said she's not very hungry." Ron nodded and the three slowly went back to their food, picking at it with very little gusto. The students all chatted loudly, talking about one thing or the other. Hermione sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"I don't think I'll be properly hungry for a while."

"Well that's what I thought when I realised we were eating food that's a good twenty years old," laughed Ron in between bites of food. Harry and Hermione burst into full-blown laughter and for a while, they were the victims of the professors' disapproving stares. They eventually stopped laughing and Hermione sighed again, except this time she looked a little more relaxed.

"I think I'm going to head on down to our rooms," she said, slowly getting up. Harry was getting up to follow her when suddenly there was a loud 'BANG' and he felt himself being hurled against the back wall. He felt a little implosion go off in him and all he could feel was pain.

Trying to ignore the excruciating pain, he staggered up onto his feet, wand in hand. Near him, Ron stood directly in front of Hermione, one hand restraining her, the other pointing his wand at the smoke unfurling in front of them. He heard Hermione whispering urgently.

"Ron let go! Dumbledore said we're not meant to stop it! If it's my time, you shouldn't be stopping it!"

"Doesn't mean we let our guard down!"

Before them, the smoke cleared and the whole school sat at their tables, watching the three professors in shock. Beside Harry, Professor McGonagall got to her feet, shaking with rage.

"MR POTTER AND MR BLACK! A WEEK OF DETENTION!"

Harry looked around and slowly lowered his wand. He shared a look with Ron and both of them sighed. This situation would have to end before it frayed their nerves. Harry hoped whoever it was would come take Hermione already. Next to him, Hermione was leaning on the wall, eyes closed, breathing slowly.

She moaned. "It was just a prank? I can't take much more of this. I felt much better with the knowledge that we would be the ones taking ourselves to the past."

Harry shook his head. "Never mind it Hermione. Right now I think the best thing is that we return to our rooms. Okay?"

Ron nodded his head and Hermione uttered a low 'okay'.

They slowly walked down the Hall, some of the students still watching them. Harry walked a little faster, thinking that Hermione would be safest in their rooms. Regardless of what Dumbledore said, Ron was right. They didn't have to let their guard down. Just as the thought crossed his mind, Hermione was blasted forward, crashing to the floor with a sickening thud. He heard a scream behind him and he distinctly heard Professor McGonagall shouting.

"Hermione!"

Ron and Harry ran up to Hermione, dropping to their knees beside her. They carefully turned her over and were shocked to see her bleeding from several cuts that had appeared all over her face. Ron grabbed Hermione by her shoulders and shook her.

"Hermione! Hermione! Wake up!"

"RON! Let go of her!"

Professor McGonagall came up behind them.

"It is okay, I WILL have Potter and Black punished for this! Just take her up to the Hospital Wing-"

However, she was cut off as Hermione stirred beneath them. Harry noticed with dread that her image was flickering. She slowly started to fade and Harry knew exactly what was happening. He roughly pushed Ron and McGonagall away, heaving himself out of the way. The students watched in amazement as Hermione slowly faded out of sight. With one last flicker, she was gone.

There was silence.

Ron and Harry stared at each other. What would happen now?

Again, there seemed to be no time to contemplate it as the doors were thrown open with an almighty bang. Harry and Ron spun to the doors and watched as Hermione limped in, her face tainted with dirt and numerous scars. Her clothes were torn and her face tear stained. Harry felt his heart stop.

Harry jumped to his feet, Ron not far behind.

"Hermione! What happened?"

A voice came from behind them, a voice they very much recognised.

"She wouldn't know…seeing as she's not the _real_ Hermione!"

They turned and there before them stood a dishevelled Hermione, clothes torn and face stained with blood.

A _second_ Hermione.

**Okay, so that's the next chapter in! It took long, but I do hope it was worth it. Again, thanks to Nosi for beta-ing it and now can you all please drop a review, tell me what you think about where this story is going. I'd really like to know. :) Hope you enjoyed it!**


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